
Class. 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



/ 







S. H. M. BYEKS. 



IOWA 



IN 



WAR TIMES 



S. H. M/BYERS, 

Late Adjutant Fifth Ioiva Infantry ; late Consul General to Rome; 

Author of "Switzerland and the Swiss" "The Happy Isles," 

"Sherman's March to the Sea," etc. 




'The Heroism of our Soldiers has made it a High Priuilege to be 
a Citizen of Iowa,"— Gov. Kirkwood. 



1888. 
W. D. COND1T & CO. 

DES MOINES. 



Copyrighted by the Author, and all Rights Reserved. 



E S 






b<S 



IOWA printing company Battle Scenes of Shiloh and Fort Donelson 

BTBBXOTYPZBB and PBINTEB8, Engraved by 

dks mdineh. John Filmer & Son, New York. 



THIS STORY OF THE WAR TIMES IS DEDICATED 



TO 



glic people of lowra, 

WHOSE HEROISM IN THE FIELD, AND WHOSE SACRIFICES 
AT HOME, HELPED TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC. 



LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 



S. H. M. Byers Frontispiece. 

Gov. S. J. Kirkwood Facing page 34 

Col. W. II. Merritt " " ^2 

Battle of Fort Donelson " . " 90 

Gen. J.M. Tuttle " " 100 

Gen. S. R. Curtis " " HO 

Battle of Shiloh " " 128 

Gen. M. M. Crocker " " 140 

Gen. C. L. Matthies " " 150 

Gen. F. J. Herron " " ISO 

Battle of Prairie Grove " " 190 

Gen. James Wilson " " 210 

Gen. E. F. Winslow " " 222 

Gen. S. A. Rice " " 238 

Senator J. W. Grimes " " 200 

Senator W. B. Allison " " 272 

Gen. F. M. Drake " " 292 

Gen. G. M. Dodge " " 310 

Gen. W. W. Belknap " " 322 

Gov. W.M. Stone " " 332 

■ Gen. J. M. Corse " " 354 

Gen. J. I. Gilbert " " 402 

Gen. G. W. Clark " " 414 

• Gen. F. H. Warren " " 438 

Capt. V. P. Twombly " " 450 

Hon. J. B. Grinnell " " 450 

' Gov. William Larrabee " " 400 



THANKS. 

The author's thanks are due to very many persons who have genei- 
ously aided him in securing material for this book. To Gov. S. J. Kirk- 
wood, for the use of valuable papers, private correspondence and per- 
sonal reminiscences ; to Gov. Larrabee and Gen. Alexander, for placing 
at the author's disposal the important records of the State; to Hon. 
J. B. Grinnell, for papers and assistance; to Gen. Tuttle, Col. Bell, 
Col. Shaw, Col. Palmer, ex-Governors Stone and Sherman, to Dr. 
Magoun, Dr. Salter and J. K. Graves, for papers and valuable aid; 
to A. W. Swalm, for the use of his fine military library ; to the pro- 
prietors of the Burlington Hawkeye, for the loan of files of their 
journal, and to the hundreds of others who have patiently answered 
letters, and who have loaned correspondence and diaries ; and especially 
to those who have written out regimental histories and whose names 
are given in the histories themselves. Lastly, his thanks are due to 
the Iowa Press, that announced and encouraged the writing of "Iowa 
in War Times," in terms that in themselves would have repaid the 
author for his labor, and that proved that the editors of to-day are as 
patriotic and as zealous for the state's honor as were the soldiers of '61. 



TO THE READER. 



Evert State has its heroic age. Iowa, young as she is, has possibly- 
passed the high-tide period of her existence. Scarcely once in a thou- 
sand years do states or nations fight for a principle really vital to the 
human race. All states worth preserving, have wars. Fate stands at 
the side of the bravest, and in these times, as in all times, nations 
exist by the edge of their sabres and the calibre of their cannon. 
Yea, so long as men are human, wars will rage in the world some- 
where. But war for the upholding of Freedom, for the unchaining 
of millions of human beings, such wars, are the epochs of the ages. 

It is a happy people to whom fate gives the chance to strike a blow 
for human rights. That people's history is made. Had the Greeks 
no tale but Marathon, their fame would be complete; the Swiss 
no names but Morgarten, Winkelried and Sempach, their history 
would be perpetual. The traditions of heroic deeds outlive all the 
books of the world, and the sacrifice of life on the altar of liberty is a 
deed approved by angels. Liberty never saw a war waged in her 
name on so grand a scale as on the American continent. The 
battles of the Greeks, the Swiss, the early English and the Holland 
struggle, were petty encounters when compared with the mighty con- 
flicts of the War of the Rebellion. Many northern states won im- 
perishable renown in the struggle, but the state of Iowa, by common 
consent, stood first and foremost among them all. Of a population of 
less than seven hundred thousand, nearly eighty thousand were in the 
field. Of her arms-bearing men, every other one stood in the ranks of 
the union army. Two thousand one hundred and fifty-two of them 
were killed outright in battle ; ten thousand two hundred and sixteen 
died in hospitals and from wounds and sickness; more than ten thou- 
sand were discharged for disability and bodies ruined by the service. 
It was an awful price for young Iowa to pay, in her valor and faith, 
but it brought her a renown as lasting as history. The soldiers of 
Iowa marched in columns from the Des Moines river to the Atlantic 
ocean, and from the Gulf to the interior of every rebel state. Her 
flags floated at the front in every battle, and points of most awful 
danger in every conflict in the South were given to Iowa men. From 
chasing the murderous guerrillas of Missouri, to battling with the 
trained hosts in the Shenandoah Valley, from Donelson to Shiloh, 
from Atlanta to Mobile, from Cairo, in Illinois, to the heart of South 
Carolina, from the beginning of the bloody war until its very end, the 
history of the soldiers of Iowa has been the story of brave men. Ten 
thousand miles of marching, a hundred battle fields, and almost never 



TO THE READER. 7 

a defeat. Men who had never seen a fort, went and took a dozen 
straight by storm. More prisoners were taken than the number of the 
captors; more cannon charged and captured than would man a dozen 
Sevastopols ; more flags than the North had states. They marched to 
South Carolina, captured its treasonable capital, tore down its rebel 
banner, brought it home as a trophy, and hoisted the loyal flag of 
Iowa in its stead. Their cavalry rode to every town in rebeldom — and 
on horse or foot, helped to accomplish more harm to afoeman than had 
ever been done in the history of cavalry before. From the beginning 
until the end, the story of Iowa valor was the same as that of tried 
comrades from other states— not greater, for all were brave, but these 
conspicuously so. Their fortune kept them at the front ; they were 
the first everywhere ; at Wilson's Creek, Iuka, Donelson, Shiloh ; at 
Vicksburg, Atlanta, Allatoona, Chattanooga and Mobile. Wherever 
Grant and Sherman led, they followed, and to victory. They were the 
heroes — the history-makers of the state. Their deeds will live. It is an 
impressive thought to realize that a thousand years from now school 
boys will be taught the story of these men. We owe the future some- 
thing, we owe it to these men, that, as far as in us lies, the truth as to 
the heroism of these Iowa patriots, and the sacrifices of Iowa at home, 
shall be preserved. In this spirit are offered the pages of this book. 
Its statements have been gathered from the records of the state, and the 
testimony of hundreds of surviving participants in the scenes it nar- 
rates. Scarcely a chapter but, before printing, has been submitted to 
Iowa soldiers who took prominent part in the war, and, though not ven- 
turing to write from memory, the author had the additional advantage 
of having been a participant in many of these scenes himself. For many 
months he has lived over the life on the tented field — marched with 
the soldiers again, by night and by day, rested in the rude bivouac, 
heard the tattoo and the reveille and the long roll beating the alarm that 
waked us to the sudden fight. He has heard again the cry " fall in," 
and charged with the men across the fields of Corinth, of Champion 
Hills, of Vicksburg and of Chattanooga. And he has seen the dead and 
the dying, and has heard the sergeant call again that roll to which so 
many of his comrades will never answer more. He has seen the end 
of the long drama, in which these comrades played so great a part— and 
now holds himself fortunate in being even the narrator of a valor that 
has shed so much lustre on the state. This book will have served its 
purpose if it shall help to keep the memory of these comrades green, 
if It shall help let the youth of the state know that their fathers and 
elder brothers were heroes and patriots, and if it shall help to teach 
the boys and girls of Iowa, that loyalty to one's country, and true 
valor, make men revered and states powerful. 



EXPLANATORY. 



This book is not a book of biography — neither is it a book of incidents. 
Tbe sincere effort has been made to prepare an enduring history of great 
events of Iowa during the war period. If there is any art in the book it 
has been the art of condensing . Men have been largely passed over — leav- 
ing the story of their deeds to speak for them. No other plan for a single 
volume seemed possible — and a book beyond a single volume could not be 
issued at a price desirable for the public. 

The short-comings of the book are realized by the writer not less than by 
those who will become its critics. Its statements of facts, however, are 
based on state and government records, supplemented by data furnished by 
ex-officers and soldiers all over the state. Where the book fails most, is 
where the record fails also. The Iowa records of the war, though volumi- 
nous, are in no sense complete. Aside from the very correct and valuable 
record of the personal history of the soldier, made by Gen. Baker himself, 
the official army papers are one vast jumble of letters and reports from the 
field, of every quality of merit, from perfection to the sadly indifferent. 
Our Iowa officers were better at fighting than at making reports. 

A very sincere effort was made to obtain all possible data in the state bear- 
ing on the war. About 500 circulars were sent to ex-soldiers asking for this, 
and over 1,000 personal letters have been written on matter pertaining to the 
book. Officers and privates generously placed at the writer's disposal their 
correspondence, diaries, etc., and it is believed that there is little of value 
bearing on the war that has not been examined. 

Want of space made it necessary to use smaller type for the Histories of 
the Regiments. It was a choice between smaller type and shorter sketches. 
These regimental histories are believed to be accurate, and it is to be hoped 
will be of valuable service to every Iowa soldier. They are nearly all new, 
condensed from the records, or written by members of the regiment 
especially for this book. When written by others, credit has been given in 
the sketch itself. To the histories of the Cavalry regiments much space 
has been accorded in the Second Part of the book. The peculiar nature of 
their movements, often in detachments, and far apart, made it impossible to 
follow them in the general description of battles. 

The chief fault of the book, it is believed, must lie in its omissions — not 
in what it says, so much as in what it does not say. Without completer 
data this could not be avoided, and soldiers noticing important lapses in the 
book, either as to men or events are kindly invited to make them known to 
the writer for use in case of future editions. Such corrections should be 
authentic, simple and brief. s. n. m. b. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I— Page 17. 

JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 
A PRELUDE. 

John Brown — A Warrior of the Lord — " Makes the gallows glorious like the 
Cross" — The beginning of the end of slavery — Iowa had been one of 
John Brown's places of refuge — The posts on the path to freedom — The 
crisis in Kansas — Tabor — West Liberty — Springdale — John Brown as a 
man — His sojourns in Iowa — Iowa men who hailed the star of freedom 
— Incidents — By the fireside in Grinnell — John Brown's cannon. 

CHAPTER II— Page 27. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR — MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT. 
Fort Sumter — The shot heard round the world — How it met the South — The 
North — Iowa— The man for the hour — Samuel J. Kirkwood — Govern- 
ment calls for a regiment — Instant response — Sketch of the War Gov- 
ernor's life — Political antecedents — Devotion to the Union — Buchanan's 
administration — Political situation — Sentiment in Iowa — Lincoln's elec- 
tion — Kirkwood's letter to President — Visit of congratulation — Believed 
in Lincoln's star — A later visit to a later President — The Governor pro- 
ceeds to set his house in order — Undrilled militia — No arms — No credit 
— Crisis coming — The pilot at the helm — The key note struck — Prompt 
action — Governor inspires and compels — Writes the Governor of Mary- 
land — Sentiment in Iowa — H. M. Hoxie — Mass meeting in Des Moines 
— Government worth fighting for — No unjust compromise — Kirkwood, 
Teesdale, Kasson, Morris and Grinnell take part — Addresses by patriots 
— Kirkwood writes his views to delegation in Washington — Conven- 
tions for compromise in Virginia and Kentucky — Kirkwood invited — 
Will not go — Sends patriotic letter — The press and the people rally to 
Kirkwood— Militia companies offered simultaneously — Washington 
Light Guards — Governor's letter of acceptance — Governor's Greys first 
company tendered the President — Burlington Rifles — Union Guards — 
Burlington Zouaves — It was the answer to South Carolina— Governor 
raises money — Banks bring their aid — Railroads carry the soldiers free 
— Private generosity — The eight-pounder present — Union of parties — 
The women of the State — Their love and their labors — Regiments ready 
before ordered — Governor suggests minute men, like our fathers in the 
Revolution, to march on an hour's notice — No uniforms — Not to be 
bought — Ezekiel Clark buys cloth for 1,500 in Chicago — The deft hands 
of Iowa women make them — Governor wants no shoddy for " Our boys " 
— The First Regiment in rendezvous at Keokuk — The song rings over 
the State — The church takes up the strain — Ringing sermons from every 
pulpit — Every prayer a benediction on the soldiers — The burden fallen 
on the Governor. 

CHAPTER III— Page 42. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR — MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT — CONTINUED. 

'"For God's sake, send us arms" — Adjutant General Bowen — Unbounded 
patriotism and untiring zeal — Soldiers eager for the fray — Governor bor- 
rows on personal reponsibility — Companies drill without arms — Loyal 
citizens maintain them — Second regiment accepted by the Governor — 



10 CONTENTS. 

Sent to Keokuk without orders from government — Legislature convened 
in May — The Governor's exposition of the situation — Intense opposition 
to loyal measures developed — Loan of $800,000 called for — Vigorously 
opposed — Peace conventions suggested — Loyalty triumphant — Loan 
granted — Militia reorganized— Disloyalty comes out boldly — Copper- 
heads — Convention at Des Moines— Denounce the President — Declare 
loan unconstitutional — Oppose coercing rebels — Rebel flag unfurled at 
Ossian — Copperhead meeting in Marion county— Shameful resolutions — 
Active opposition to war measures — Secret meetings — Counterfeit Union 
convention. 

CHAPTER IV— Page 56. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR — MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT— CONTINUED. 

The Governor in Washington begging for arms — Copperhead efforts pre- 
vent sale of state bonds — Kirkwood, Hiram Price and Ezekiel Clark 
maintain the regiments in camp on personal security — Pretended loy- 
alty — July 4, 1861, extra session of Congress — Pitiable spectacle of par- 
leying with treason — Iowa legislature on a larger scale — The hand of 
the Almighty pushing events — Bull Run rouses the people — Towa an- 
swers with four new regiments — In a month 12,000 lowans in field and 
in camp — Governor renews efforts to sell bonds — Fails — Appeals to the 
citizens of state to buy — Adjutant General resigns— Governor appoints 
Nathaniel B. Baker — Like Kirkwood, born to the place — Every heart- 
beat for the soldiers — Prompt with the guilty— Success and recognition 
— Previous life — The State's good fortune in its leaders — Baker's vig- 
ilance in details — In July, 1861, war begins in earnest — President calls 
for 300,000— Iowa's quota forms rapidly — Blanket episode — Enlistment 
more rapid than acceptance — Touching incidents. 

CHAPTER, V— Page 63. 
iowa at wilson's creek. 

Iowa's first fight — Lyon pursues Jackson through Missouri — Sigel defeated 
by Jackson — Joins Lyon at Springfield — Jackson re-enforced by ten 
thousand — Fremont leaves Lyon unsupported — Lyon makes a bold strike 
— Marches by night to Wilson's Creek and attacks the enemy — Rebels 
five to one against him — The First Iowa's time expired, but every man 
stays to fight with Lyon — Lt.-Col. Merritt leads the First — Five hours 
in the storm of battle — Ten rebel charges repulsed — Lyon waits for Sigel 
— Sigel unknown to him retreating to Springfield — Lyon falls — Lull in 
the battle — Major Sturgis in command — Treacherous approach of the 
Rebels under Union colors — Desperate contest — Rebels abandon the 
field- Shattered Union forces retiring to Springfield — The song of the 
Union — The Hero dead — Successful retreat to Rolla — Honor to the 
First Iowa — 160 men lost — The remainder, except three, wounded — 
Every man a hero. 

CHAPTER VI— Page 71. 

AFFAIRS IN IOWA. 
First regiment returns — Is mustered out — Fired by example, enlistment goes 
on— Kirkwood in Washington asking for arms to defend the state 
border — " When the news of Wilson's Creek reached Washington, it 
was an honor to be an Iowa man " — State in dire need of money — Cop- 
perheads succeed in preventing sale of bonds — Dilemma — Work in 
Adjutant General's office — Ignorance of officers of the art of war — 
Bravery of the common soldiers— Mistakes in military appointments — 
Unworthy officers — True merit. 



CONTENTS. li 

CHAPTER VII— Page 77. 

BATTLE OF BLUE MILLS. 

Horrors of war in Missouri — Guerrilla warfare — Part of the Third Iowa, under 
Lt.-Col. Scott, fall in Ambush — Blue Mills — A desperate fight against 
fate— Retreat before an enemy eight to one — Deeds of bravery — Fre- 
mont's removal — Thanksgiving Day of 1861. 

CHAPTER VIII— Page 81. 

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT — GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE. 

Grant with 20,000 men at Cairo — Fremont and Price — Fremont orders Giant 
and Smith to deceive enemy at Columbus — Smith makes feint on rear- 
Grant on the river toward Belmont — Volunteers want to fight — Grant 
yields— Seventh Iowa in line of battle — Enemy prepared to receive them 
— Description of the battle — Gallantry of Col. Lauman — Lt.-Col. Wentz 
killed — Lauman and Maj. Elliott Rice wounded — Rebels disastrously 
beaten — Tide of battle turns — Surrounded — Desperate Retreat — Severe 
losses — Mention for gallantry — Belmont a defeat — Rebel congress 
thanks God. 

CHAPTER IX— Page 88. 

AFTER BELMONT. 

Gov. Kirkwood asks for Iowa Brigadiers — Valor and hardships of our men 
not properly recognized — Embarrassments of the Governor in appoint- 
ing — Will England make war? 

CHAPTER X— Page 91. 

IOWA AT DONELSON. 

Fremont — Cause of his removal — Halleck— Albert Sidney Johnston — Posi- 
tions of Forts Donelson and Henry — Grant's plan — " 1 can take and hold 
Fort Henry " — Surrender of the Fort — " I shall take and destroy Fort 
Donelson" — Troops hurried thither — The investment — The Iowa boys 
on the left — Second Iowa hurries to the scene — Untoward beginning of 
battle — A night snowy and cold — On the morrow the fight begins — 
Rebels attempt to cut their way out — Frustrated — Assault by Smith's 
division — Second, Seventh and Fourteenth Iowa — Col. Lauman — The 
Twelfth Iowa^The charge — The receiving volleys — The outer entrench- 
ment won — Morning — The white flag — Unconditional surrender — Lau- 
man's brigade marches into Donelson — Second Iowa at its head — " The 
bravest of the brave " — The turning point of the war— Deeds of valor- 
Tears for the slain — The news in Iowa. 

CHAPTER XI— Page 108. 

IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 

Hard fate of the Unionists in Missouri — Halleck occupied with the Army 
of the Tennessee — He "leaves Price to Gen. Curtis " — Curtis equal to 
the emergency — His antecedents — Price enters Springfield on Christ- 
mas — "The Army of the Southwest" — The march on Springfield — 
Retreat of Price— Pursuit— Fight at Sugar Creek— Taking "Cross Hol- 
lows" — Enemy re-inforced — Curtis falls back to Sugar Creek — " Beware 
of Van Dorn " — He advances with 40,000 rebels — Curtis rapidly dis- 
poses his forces — Sigel's mishap — Van Dorn's strategy — Curtis sur- 
rounded — Brilliant strategic movement of Curtis — Faces the enemy on 
Pea Ridge — Intercepted movement — Rebel cavalry charge — Texan bar- 
barism — Indian scalping — The scene "not devoid of satisfaction" to a 



12 CONTENTS. 

rebel witness — The battle opens in earnest — Iowa men receive the first 
shock — Seven hours under fire — Desperate righting — Dodge's brigade 
against superior numbers nearly nine hours— Loses one-third of its men 
— Darkness closes the first day's fight — Sunrise, and the fight re-opened 
— Curtis counsels with Dodge — The heroic resolve— A general charge — 
The enemy fly — The battle won — The wounded and the dead — Promo- 
tions for valor. 

CHAPTER XII— Page 122. 

IOWA AT SHILOH. 

The part played by Iowa soldiers — The hero of Donelson suspended from 
duty — Gen. C. F. Smith lands the troops at Pittsburg Landing — Grant 
reinstated — Buell's leisurely approach — Position of the Union army — 
Gen. W. H. L. Wallace's division — Gen. J. M. Tuttle's brigade — Disposi- 
tion of the different Iowa regiments — The new volunteers — Was the battle 
a surprise? — Rebel testimony — Gen. Tuttle's story — "The Hornets' Nest" 
— Surrounded — "Let us cut our way out" — The Second and Seventh Iowa 
charge — The Twelfth, Fourteenth and Eighth captured — The part 
of the Seventh Iowa-The Twelfth— The "Fourteenth — The Third 
— Its gallant record — The peach orchard — The Sixth Iowa at the right — 
Its unsurpassed bravery — Its varied fortune — The Thirteenth iowa 
and the Eleventh — Their skill and valor — The Fifteenth and the Six- 
teenth — Fresh from their homes — Hurried into a desperate battle — In the 
hottest places — Sabbath night on the battle field — Daylight— Grant 
attacks — Shiloh won — Nearly 11,000 Union soldiers lost — Iowa's loss 
one-fourth of the whole. 

CHAPTER XIII -Page 149. 

IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 

September, 1862 — Buell and Bra°rg having a race for the Ohio — Western 
army dispersed by Halleck — Grant left with inadequate force — Gloomy 
period — Price and Van Dorn move out for attack — Grant's plan to sur- 
round them — An unlucky wind — The attack — A fierce fight — Great 
heroism of the Fifth Iowa — Charges and countercharges— Heavy losses 
— Sunset and victory — The wounded — Night on the battle field — Price 
retreats — Failure to capture him. 

CHAPTER XIV— Page 159. 

THE BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 

Night at Corinth— The orderto " fall in " — Forty thousand Rebels approach- 
ing — Preparations for battle — Positions taken — Twelve Iowa regiments 
— Their disposition — Thermometer 108° in the shade — Rebel charges on 
the works — Repulses— Col. Baker of the Second Iowa falls — Last wor Is 
— Gen. Oglesby — Gen. Hackleman — Last words — Movement of Hamil- 
ton's division — Gallantry of the Crocker brigade — Night— Morning 
renews the fight — The thunder of artillery — Furious charging — The 
redoubt lost and retaken— Gallant exploit of Corporal King — Col. Mills 
— Battery Robinett — The battle won— "The eye of our Army " — Honor 
to the brave — Rebel loss— Pursuit— Battle at the Hatchie — The Heroic 
Third — " Somebody blundered." 

CHAPTER XV— Page 175. 

THANKSGIVING DAY, 1862. 

McClellan's removal — Iowa glad — Great patriotism in the state — Iowa 
ahead on troops — But almost a draft to fill old regiments — Proportion 
of Republicans and Democrats in the army — The Knights of the Golden 



CONTENTS. 13 

Circle — Little else than assassins — Provost Marshal Hoxie — Keeps watch 
on the Knights — Great work for the soldiers at home — " I will do all 1 
can for the soldiers, as long as I live," said Baker — Incompetent officers 
— Politicians in shoulder-straps — All want to be brigadiers — Iowa women 
>»• the harvest field — Pathetic scenes in Iowa towns — Home on furlough. 

CHAPTER XVI— Page 186". 

BATTLE OF PRAIRIE GROVE. 

A hot battle — Great charge of the Nineteenth Iowa— McFarland slain — 
Charge of the Twentieth — The victory won — Thanks of the Governor — 
Parker's Cross Roads. 

CHAPTER XVII— Page 196. 

ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG — ARKANSAS POST. 

The Key of the Mississippi — "Citadel of the slaveholders' Confederacy" — 
Grant moves against it — Sherman to co-operate — Van Dorn strikes a 
blow— Grant's effort fruitless — Sherman continues — Campaign of the 
Chickasaw Bayou — Fights among bayous and lagoons — Assaults bloody 
but fruitless — Sherman withdraws — The Iowa troops — The Fourth 
infantry — Grant's tribute — Arkansas Post — "Hold out till the last man 
is dead" — The fort invested — Taken by assault — The part of the Iowa 
boys — The Yazoo Pass — Inland seas — Picturesque navigation — Unsuc- 
cessful. 

CHAPTER XVIII-Page 206. 

IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 

Grant proposes another attempt — The gunboats and transports pass the bat- 
teries on the river — "A magnificent sight, but terrible " — Grand Gulf — 
The army crosses the river. 

Port Gibson — Page 208. 

First act in the new drama — Twenty-nine Iowa regiments advancing — Fight- 
ing in the night— The battle of Port Gibson — Still marching. 

Raymond and Jackson — Page 211. 

The way to Vicksburg open — The battle begins May 12th— Gallantry of 
Towa troops — The march on Jackson — The capital of Mississippi falls — 
How our men fought there. 

Champion Hills — Page 214. 

May 16th — A terrific fight — Unsurpassed bravery of Iowa men — Incidents 
of the battle — Saving the flag — A brave boy — Complete victory. 

Battle op Bt-ack River Bridge— Page 220. 
Great charge of Lawler*s brigade of Iowa men — Witnessed by Gen. Grant 
—Letter from Grant on the battle field — Rebels drown in the river — The 
victory — Grant's army marches close to the walls of Vicksburg— The 
Fourth Iowa cavalry takes Haines's Bluff — Iowa troops the first to leave 
the Mississippi river on the campaign, and the first to reach water on 
the Yazoo. 

The Siege— Page 224. 

The siege begun — Twenty Iowa regiments on hand — Disposition of the 
investing force — On May 19th, an assault without result — Second ter- 
rific assault on the 22d — Loss of the Iowa troops— The Sevastopol of 
the South — Lawler's brigade, with the Twenty-first, Twenty-second and 



14 CONTENTS. 

Twenty-third Iowa, assaults — Sergt. Griffith leads thirteen men into 
the works, and hoists the Union flag — Other heroic deeds — The lost 
hope — Men advance with ladders from the ditches, and are all shot 
down — Unique warfare — Living in the ditches — Blowing up forts — Ten 
more Iowa regiments — Thirty in all — Gov. Kirkwood visits the boys, 
and receives a Rebel salute — Vicksburg falls July 4, 1862 — "The Mis- 
sissippi flows unvexed to the sea." 

Siege of Jackson — Page 232. 

Corse's celebrated reconnoissance — Iowa again at the front — The massacre 
of the Iowa Third — Somebody blundered — Jackson falls for the second 
time — Our victorious army returns to Vicksburg. 

CHAPTER XIX— Page 236. 

THE BATTLE OF HELENA. 

A heroic defense — Gen. S. A. Rice — " Please let me take Helena" — Price's 
gallant charge — Loses 1,500 men — Last fighting for possession of Mis- 
sissippi river. 

Sterling Farm — Page 241. 

Capture of the Nineteenth Iowa. 

CHAPTER XX— Page 243. 

SOME MINOK ENGAGEMENTS. 

Milliken's Bend— Page 243. 

•'No quarter for niggers " — The black flag — Every other man of the Twenty- 
third Iowa killed or wounded — Hugh T. Reicl. 

Defense of Springfield — Page 245. 

Gallantry of the Eighteenth Iowa — The Quinine brigade. 

The Battle of Hartsville— Page 248 

The Twenty-first Iowa defeats superior numbers. 

CHAPTER XXI— Page 250. 

IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 

The storming of Missionary Ridge — Nine Iowa regiments engaged — Hero- 
ism of Corse — Waiting the midnight signal — An army crossing the river 
— The storming of the Ridge — Eighting above the clouds— Gen. Mat- 
thies wounded — Heavy loss among Iowa troops— Col. Torrence killed at 
Cherokee — The grandeur of the battle — A great victory. 

CHAPTER XXII— Page 259. 

THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 

The greatest year in American history— Proclamation of Emancipation — 
Speech of C. C. Cole— The Democrats who support the President— A 
new governor for Iowa — Col. Stone nominated — The Democratic candi- 
date defeated — Vallandigham's overthrow — The great war summer — 
Historic milestones— High-handed action of Copperheads in Iowa- 
Prosperity of the country — Plan to kill Kirkwood — Salter's words of 
eloquence— Senators Grimes and Harlan — Congressmen Wilson, Grin- 
nell, Kasson and Price— Wm. B. Allison elected to congress. 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER XXIII— Page 271. 

IOWA IN THE RED KIVER CAMPAIGN. 

The charge at Fort de Russey— Fight at Sabine Cross Roads — The battle of 
Pleasant Hill — Heroism of Shaw's "Iron Brigade" — Terrible fighting 
of the Thirty-second Iowa — Wrong done a brave man. 

CHAPTER XXIV— Page 284. 
Steele's march on camden. 

Battle of Elkin's Ford— Lt.-Col. Drake commands — Prairie d'Anne — Want 
of rations at Camden — The Eighteenth Iowa at Poison Springs— Dis- 
aster to the Thirty-sixth Iowa at Mark's Mills — Battle of Jenkins- 
Ferry — Gen. Rice mortally wounded — Back at Little Rock. 

CHAPTER XXV— Page 301. 

THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 

The Richmond of the South — Sherman succeeds Grant — 120 days of battle — 
Dodge at Resaca — The fighting continued — Kenesaw Mountain— Iowa 
figures in the great battles — The eventful 22d of July — Heroism of the 
Crocker Brigade — Col. Belknap's bravery — Capture of the Sixteenth 
Iowa — "Atlanta is ours." 

CHAPTER XXVI— Page 324. 

THANKSGIVING DAT, 1864. 

Governor Stone's Administration — The Democrats' nomination of McClellau 
for the Presidency — Iowa does not endorse him — Gov. Kirkwood's retire- 
ment — Every other arms-bearing man in Iowa at the front — Histoi'ic 
flags in our arsenal — " Shot in the heart by a musket ball " — The 100 
days men — " Sons of Liberty " as conspirators. 

CHAPTER XXVII-Page 336. 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

Seventeen Iowa regiments in the brilliant campaign — Iowa men sever the 
last tie with the North — Iowa men the first to reach the Sea — Fort 
McAllister stormed — Savannah entered— The song of the March to the 
Sea. 

CHAPTER XXVIII— Page 351. 

hood's invasion. 

Gen. Corse and the gallant Thirty-ninth Iowa at Allatoona — A famous strug- 
gle— Redfield slain. 

Tilton— Page 356. 

Seventeenth Iowa attacked by Hood's army — Is captured — Col. Wever of 
the Seventeenth Iowa holds Resaca — The great battle of Franklin — 
Thirteen rebel generals and 6,000 men killed or wounded — The battle 
of Nashville — Hard fighting of Iowa regiments— Iowa cavalry storming 
forts — Col. Hill slain — Hood's army destroyed. 

CHAPTER XXIX— Page 368. 

TUPELO AND THE DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 

Tupelo — Oldtown Creek and the defense of Memphis — Gallantry of Iowa men 
at these places 



16 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXX— Page 373. 

IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 

Battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek — The Twenty- second, 
Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa conspicuous in them all — Sheri- 
dan's Ride — Cedar Creek one of the greatest victories of the war — The 
Valley free — Early destroyed — How Iowa regiments helped to do it — 
Great losses — Bells rung and cannon fired all over the country. 

CHAPTER XXXI- Page 387. 

WITH SHEKMAN IN THE CAROLINAS. 

Eleven Iowa regiments march and fight in South Carolina — The capture of 
Columbia — Great scenes — Escape of prisoners — Iowa flags the first to 
float on the Capitol — The march continues — A hard campaign— Battle 
of Bentonsville — Charging of an Iowa brigade — The rebel army, followed 
so long, surrenders — Death of the President. 

CHAPTER XXXII— Page 401. 

THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 

The storming of Spanish Fort by the Eighth Iowa— Gallantry of Col. Bell — 
Capture of Fort Blakely — Iowa soldiers charging the works — The last 
battle of the war — Mobde falls. 

CHAPTER XXXIII— Page 416. 

SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 
Short sketches of a few of them — List of Iowa generals. — Page 443. 

CHAPTER XXXIV— Page 444. 

SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 
Mention of many of them. 

CHAPTER XXXV— Page 454. 

CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 

Their sacrifices — What they did, and who many of them were— They form 
the great Army of the Reserve — The loyal press. 

CHAPTER XXXVI— Page 470. 

A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 

First soldier wounded — First slaves armed in defense of the Union — Gn at 
losses — Cost of living in war times — Great marches — Beating a war 
secretary — Murders by Iowa Copperheads — The blackest page of history 
— The grand Army of the Republic — The Soldiers' Home. 

PART II. 

Hisi (hues op the Iowa Infantry Regiments — Page 481 — et seq. 

Histokies op the Iowa Cavalry Regiments — Page 569 — et seq. 

Histories op rnE Iowa Batteries, Marine Brigade, Etc — 
Page 596 — et seq. 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



OHAPTEK I. 

JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 

A PRELUDE. 



The bells of the churches were tolling in many northern 
towns on the 2d day of December, of 1859; for at Charlestown, 
not far from Harper's Ferry, the Virginians were hanging one 
of the Warriors of the Lord. John Brown, the friend of the 
oppressed, was on that day, in the words of Emerson, " making 
the gallows glorious like the cross." The drama enacted that 
day at Charlestown, was one of the events that precipitated the 
mighty War of the Rebellion. Misguided or not, sympathy for 
John Brown and the idea he represented, was well nigh uni- 
versal in the North. If slavery were an institution, the mere 
threatening of which, by a handful of men, could shake the whole 
South and drive its people to the verge of madness, it was an 
evil dangerous to the existence of the country. So thought 
reflecting men all over the world. John Brown's name became a 
synonym for freedom to the oppressed. In the eyes of many, 
his death was martyrdom. That point reached, and the South 
had prepared the way for the destruction of the crime on which 
all southern policy was built. Slavery was not more dead at the 
close of the great Rebellion than it was the day John Brown 
was hung at Charlestown. From that awful hour, its existence 
was of form only. Not the North alone, but the world, waited 
to see if the South, in its terror and desperation, would wage a 
war to perpetuate a crime that most men felt to be already 
doomed. Thirty years of threatening to destroy the American 
government whenever it should cease to make slavery its corner- 
stone, had not prepared the world to believe that the South was 



18 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

at last in earnest. The ease with which three thousand militia 
could legally put to death a dozen maimed people at Charlestown, 
misled the South into supposing that Northerners would not 
forcibly resist the unlawful spread of slavery, nor by arms 
preserve the government of the people. 

All this, too, spite of a bitter experience they had so recently 
suffered in their unlawful efforts to force their accursed institu- 
tion into free Kansas. John Brown had given the friends of 
slavery a taste of blood in Kansas that was reckoned up against 
him on that fatal December day at Charlestown. His career, 
during those Kansas days, when hundreds of freedom-loving men 
struggled against thousands of oppressors of the weak and 
wronged, was watched in Iowa as from no other state. He had 
many friends and sympathizers here. Iowa afforded him his first 
real refuge place after contest. On Iowa soil were inspired and 
planned his most daring schemes. It was across her prairies 
and past her loyal towns he wandered by night and by day, 
carrying with him liberty for the oppressed. Here he rested 
from struggle, and here he trained and armed the little band of 
followers who were to share perils and death with him in a cause 
deemed sacred as the Wars for the Sepulchre. Those were the 
days of the "under-ground railroad" in Iowa, by which fugi- 
tives from slavery were helped to the land toward the North 
Star. The posts of this path to freedom were, to the escaping 
negro, " as a cloud by day, and as a pillar of fire by night," and 
every one of them was as familiar to John Brown as his own 
fireside. He was so often and so closely connected with the 
state that people almost forgot that he was not an Iowa man. 
He loved Iowa, and he believed that the sin attempted on Kansas, 
if successful, would inevitably be visited on Iowa as well. 
He went farther, and with Lincoln asserted that the country 
could not much longer exist if slavery were not destroyed. If 
slavery was a sin, a moral wroug, and a danger to the people, for 
whom the government was made, then any means, however vio- 
lent, were justifiable in his eyes in order to put it down. He 
did not believe, either, that a few stray " squatters " had a right 
to determine laws and government for what might soon ba the 



JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 19 

populous and mighty state of Kansas; the less so if those laws 
were the children of sin, and that government a government of 
fraud and oppression. 

When Kansas was thrown open to settlement, the pro-slavery 
men of the South determined that it should be given over to 
slavery. The freedom loving people of the North opposed them, 
and then commenced a mighty war of words outside of Kansas, 
and of villainous deeds within. Missourians by the thousands 
invaded the state, mastered the ballot-box, drove off the officials, 
assumed the government, burned, destroyed and murdered, and 
all in the name of a slavery detested outside the South, the 
world over. John Brown, the gray-haired shepherd of North 
Elba, in New York, recognized in the Kansas struggle that 
here was to be the first battle ground in defense of human 
rights, as opposed to outrage and treason. His own sons, free 
emigrants to Kansas, were crying to him for help to protect 
their firesides and their lives. The fearless man, strong in the 
refuge of the Lord, buckled on his armor, went to Kansas, and 
alone, struck blows that made victory possible in the bloody 
years to come. Few realized that the war for the destruction 
of liberty on this continent had already begun. Absolute war 
could not have made the people of Missouri, Arkansas, and other 
parts of the South, greater violators of law, and right, and justice, 
than they became when they marched with fire and sword into 
liberty-loving Kansas. 

Fortunately for this country, the people of Kansas were not 
cowards. Had they been, they would have been overcome. Hu- 
man slavery would, like a ghost, have stalked into all the terri- 
tories. The slave power would have had its way. The War 
of the Rebellion would not have been heard of, and the great 
crime that disgraced the Nation in the eyes of the world would 
have been perpetuated forever. The Lord willed that it should 
not be so, and the instrument he chose for his purpose, like Saul 
of old, was found tending the flocks of the field. In all his 
encounters with the slave-power, and with the southern invaders 
of Kansas, John Brown was a hero, and his heroism saved the 
state to freedom. Let that be written on his monument. Had 



20 ' IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

he failed, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and the whole Northwest might 
have been given over to the barbarism of slavery. That would 
have been the logical and intended sequence of the Dred Scott 
decision. John Brown's heroism in Kansas made that out- 
rageous verdict of no avail. No wonder that the people of Iowa 
honored his name, for his success was partly by their help and 
sympathy, and his victory conferred blessings on their children. 
In all the central part of Iowa, there were loyal stations of 
the under-ground railroad. Many were the brave and true men 
who, in those days, spite of abuse, and calumny, and loss of prop- 
erty, kept the beacon fires of liberty burning in the state. Men 
like William Penn Clark, J. B. Grinnell, Suel Foster, Jacob 
Butler, James Parvin, Senator J. C. Jordan, Thomas Mitchell, 
George W. Drake, Col. John Edwards, John Teesdale, John 
Todd, James McCoy, H. M. Hoxie, H. D. Downey, Dr. Jesse 
Bowen, Ransom L. Harris, and scores of others, faithful to the 
end, labored without money and without price, serving the cause 
of the oppressed, feeding, clothing and giving drink to the des- 
pised, and pointing them to the North Star. They were the 
first names on the roll of honor of the state. 

Very many of the leading men and the Abolitionists of the 
state knew the hero of Ossawattamie personally. At the fire- 
side of many he was an intimate friend. The places he most 
frequented were the towns of Tabor, on the Missouri river, and 
West Liberty and Springdale, in Cedar county, with occa- 
sional visits to Grinnell, Des Moines, and other points, where he 
was sure of true friends and substantial aid. Tabor was the 
nearest under-ground railroad-post to the South, and its people 
were largely freedom-loving Abolitionists from Oberlin, Ohio. 
There were times in those days, when little Tabor presented 
more an appearance of war than it ever did during the great 
Rebellion. It was not a very uncommon thing, of an autumn 
evening in 1856 or 1857, to see the little public square filled with 
from a dozen to twenty covered wagons, a little park of artillery, 
and scores of armed " free state " emigrants, on their way to 
Kansas. 

" The cannon were placed in the center," says John Todd, of 



JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 21 

Tabor, an eye-witness, " with the Stars and Stripes mounted on 
the gun carriage. The covered wagons were arranged in a 
circle around the cannon — tents were pitched outside the wagons, 
camp fires were kindled outside the tents, and, outside of all, 
were placed the sentries. Often, on the following day, a hundred 
men drilled on the village common. Not infrequently we 
heard of men killed in the conflict in Kansas, who, but a few 
days before, passed through our village. 11 

The wounded and the sick of the Kansas emigrants were some- 
times brought back to Tabor. So it was that John Brown, 
bringing a wounded son-in-law, shot in Kansas, made his first 
visit to Tabor in August of 1856. He made no stay then, but 
hurried back to the defense of Lawrence against a horde of Mis- 
souri ruffians. It must have been an impressive sight, when old 
John Brown entered Lawrence, armed to the teeth, and accom- 
panied by seven sons and sons-in-law, to help keep Kansas free 
from the oppressor. 

In the following September, John Brown and four of his 
sons, on a journey eastward, rested in Tabor for several weeks. 
Again, in 1857, almost the entire summer was spent by Brown 
in Tabor, drilling his followers in the use of arms, and disciplin- 
ing them for battle. He had with him Col. H. Forbes, a 
drill-master, and there were stored in the village quantities of 
sabres, muskets, cannon and ammunition. It was believed by 
the people there that Capt. Brown was preparing to resist another 
suspected invasion of Kansas by the border ruffians of Missouri. 
Positive knowledge of his plans was not obtainable. " Brown 
was a man of few words, 11 says one of the townspeople, " and 
kept his own counsels. 11 

When John Brown, and Lane and their followers had driven 
the Missouri vandals back into the shadows from which they 
came, it was in Brown's mind but a step to follow them there, 
and attempt to take from them the human chattels they held in 
a bondage bitterer than death. As long as history shall last, 
John Brown's efforts to free his fellow man from bondage will 
be remembered with thankfulness and tears. Men will no longer 
ask whether his methods were wisest, or even protected by laws. 



22 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

Had he been successful, his name, even at that very hour, would 
have been linked with the name of Washington, as a benefactor 
of mankind. John Brown believed in God's Golden Rule. " It 
were better," he cried, "that every man, woman and child 
should pass from the earth by violent death, than that one jot 
of this rule should fail in this country." Such heroism of 
thought had never been known. " This man," cried Emerson, 
" is the truest hero-man I ever met." " Do you know," said 
Theodore Parker, " this is one of the extraordinary men of this 
age and nation?" "I will put his picture there beside that of 
Victor Hugo/' exclaimed Secretary Seward, " for he struck the 
boldest and highest of any man who ever breathed American 
air." If John Brown so impressed the intellectual giants of 
America, what must have been the impression made on the 
ordinary people by his heroism? In Kansas, the highest 
respected and the commonest loved him. If help was wanted, if 
defense against outrage, John Brown's simple camp in the woods 
would be hunted up and the story of distress laid before him. 

One evening, about the good Christmas time of 1858, a poor 
slave, named "Jim," slipped over the Missouri line into Kansas, 
to tell John Brown how himself and some of his friends were 
the next day to be separated from their families and sold south. 
He appealed for help. The cry for deliverance was not in vain. 
That night, John Brown, accompanied by trusted friends, crossed 
the border and rescued eleven slaves from cruel task-masters. 
Shortly, he was traveling with them along the under-ground 
railroad of Iowa toward the North Star. That was his most 
important journey through the state. Great rewards were offered 
for his arrest. It was death in those days to be convicted of 
carrying slaves out of Missouri. James Buchanan, President of 
the United States, joined in offering rewards for the return of 
men and women to slavery and for the capture of God's minister. 
To the children of free America to-day, the story must seem 
incredible. Spies were sent on Brown's tracks, and officers bear- 
ing warrants and offers of reward. He was pursued as only 
assassins and murderers are pursued; so intent was the govern- 
ment of Missouri, and of the United States, in protecting the 



JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 23 

villainy of slavery. No wonder that when he reached his 
friends in little Tabor, some of them stood back and feared to 
offer the fugitives the hand. It was the 12th of February, 
1859, that John Brown, with his fugitive slaves, and escort of a 
few armed white men, entered the town of Tabor. To one of 
the negro fugitives a child had been born on the way, making 
their number twelve. This child was named John Brown. 
They stopped at the home of George B. Gaston, the founder of 
the village, till over Sunday. On that Sabbath morning, as the 
village preacher was commencing his services, the following note 
was handed to him, and he read it to the congregation. " John 
Brown respectfully requests the church at Tabor to offer public 
thanksgiving to Almighty God in behalf of himself and company, 
and of their rescued captives in particular, for His gracious pres- 
ervation of their lives and health, and his signal deliverance of 
all out of the hand of the wicked hitherto. ' Oh! give thanks 
unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. 1 " 

That Sunday, the people of Tabor, anxious to know how so 
many slaves had been freed, set on foot an inquiry, and by close 
questioning learned of Brown's raid by night into the state of 
Missouri — that the party had divided on entering the state, had 
taken away the slaves, and with them certain teams of their 
masters for their transportation ; also, that the party not under 
Brown's command had killed the master of one of the slaves, 
just as he was reaching for his gun to fire upon them. The law 
and the propriety of all this was much questioned by the people 
of Tabor, and John Brown was invited to explain and justify his 
course at a public meeting on the morrow. In the meantime, a 
resident of Missouri, passing through Tabor, stopped over to 
attend the meeting. Brown heard of. the presence of what he 
believed an enemy, or a slaveholder's spy, and refused to proceed 
with his address, unless the Missourian were compelled to with- 
draw. The request was refused, and with feelings of grief, Capt. 
Brown himself withdrew. The meeting at once passed resolu- 
tions condemning the raid into Missouri. 

The old hero retired to his quarters greatly grieved, feeling 
that those in whom he had a right to trust had left him — possi- 



2J: IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

bly, would betray hiin. He called for his arms, made immediate 
and close inspection, as if preparing for a conflict, and left his 
old-time friends and Tabor, forever. The march through Iowa 
with his contrabands was difficult and full of danger. All the 
enemies of freedom in the state were astir, and watching for him. 
" John Brown and his niggers " were to be headed off, and cap- 
tured, dead or alive. Those who offered food, or rest, or lodging, 
did so at the peril of their lives. Never in their history had the 
true courage of the old Abolitionists been so necessary as now. 
They were threatened in advance of his coming. " Feed John 
Brown, give him shelter, show him the way, and your roofs 
burning above your heads shall be the penalty, 11 was shouted 
clear across the loyal state. To her shame, Iowa had men in her 
borders capable of doing all of this — the same men who in 
later and fiercer times, sought to cripple her strength, when 
traitors were at their country's throat. 

From post to post, well armed, and sustained by courageous 
friends, John Brown marched his weary way across the state. 
The path he went was honor's path, and history should mark its 
milestones in letters of gold. At Grinnell, the party of fugitives 
were the guests of the founder of the town, Hon. J. B. Grinnell, 
himself a devoted Abolitionist of the old heroic school — a man 
whose name has become linked with all that is noble in the 
state's history. Here John Brown rested, and at the fireside of 
his friends fought over the conflicts that have made him famous in 
Kansas. In an adjoining room were stacked the arms and sabres 
with which he had been carving a road to freedom. Hidden in 
the barn were the human beings who for the first time were 
breathing man's free heritage —free air. Even then, at that 
quiet fireside, there was planning in his mind the fierce conflict 
he proposed to enter among the mountains of Virginia. At an 
antique desk, still the valued souvenir of Mr. Grinnell, John 
Brown wrote a part of the Virginia proclamation. Sitting by 
that fireside, he uttered words of heroic wisdom, worthy of the 
prophets. A price was set upon his head, but he feared not. 
"It were nothing to die in a good cause, 11 he said, " but an eter- 
nal disgrace to sit still in the presence of the barbarities of 



JOHN BROWN IN IOWA. 25 

American slavery." " Providence has made me an actor; slavery, 
an outlaw." " An old man should have more care to end life 
well than to live long." " Duty is the voice of God, and a man 
is not worthy home or heaven who is not willing to be in peril 
for a good cause." " One man in the right, ready to die, will 
chase a thousand." "A man dies when his time come3; and a 
man who fears, is born out of time." These were the words of a 
man whom his enemies affected to pronounce " crazy." Of such 
craziness has come all the heroism, all the virtue of the world. 

While at Grrinnell, a plan was proposed by Workman, a gov- 
ernment official at Iowa City, for Brown's capture. One glance 
of the old man's fearless eye, one tick of a gun that never missed 
its aim, and Provost Workman and his slavery-loving squad left 
the way open wherever John Brown would go. By the middle 
of March, the contrabands were over the border at Detroit, 
joined to hundreds of others, saved to their birth-right by the 
same heroic hand. Later, the old hero was in Iowa again, tarry- 
ing mostly at West Liberty, Cedar county, preparing for his 
atttack on Harper's Ferry — and at Springdale. His life here was 
much as it had been at Tabor — in quiet preparation for the blow 
that he hoped might end slavery under a government that 
affected to be free. The people loved him, and the children 
went out of their way to see his kindly face, and be greeted by 
the singular stranger in their midst, whose patriarchal words 
and ways seemed so simple and good. In the rooms of the State 
Historical Society, at Iowa City, one sees a little brass cannon, 
presented by Col. Trowbridge, the efficient custodian of the 
place, and a personal friend of John Brown. So long as state 
pride shall last, in Iowa, so long shall this piece of ordnance be 
revered as a precious souvenir of the dark days; for it is one of 
the cannon used by John Brown in his defense of liberty in 
Kansas. 

When the blow at Harper's Ferry was struck, its very haste 
defeated its proper end. Organized help was probably ready to 
join Brown, when the telegraph flashed the news of his capture. 
Had sufficient force joined him to have made that first blow suc- 
cessful, there is scarcely a doubt but a general insurrection on 



26 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the part of the slaves of the South would have given them their 
freedom without the bloody war of which John Brown's history 
was but the prelude. No man in this country realized so much 
as John Brown that the Southerners were preparing to destroy 
the government. His hope was to destroy slavery first, recog- 
nizing the crime of its existence as the only possible reason for 
a desire for secession. He believed proper any and all means 
that might accomplish the end, and reckoned his own life as 
nothing, if only the oppressed could be free. Possibly his meth- 
ods were not the best, but he believed them to be approved by 
Almighty God. They seemed feeble in their results at first, but 
there sprang from them the forces that destroyed the most 
shameful iniquity of the world — slavery, in a land consecrated to 
freedom. 

Possibly John Brown was not worldly-wise in his plans, but 
in the shadow of the scaffold there rested in his heart that peace 
of God which passeth all understanding. Of his hero comrades, 
nearly all suffered the martyr-death that he did — death for a 
principle made sacred by command of God. One of them, Bar- 
clay Coppic, escaped the Virginia massacre, and came to his 
home in Iowa. His surrender was demanded by the arrogant 
Virginians, that he, too, might die. Coppic, however, was never 
surrendered, and the Virginians 1 hands were saved the blood of 
one more martyr. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR—MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT. 

A little before daylight of April 12, 1861, crowds of people 
standing at vantage points about the city and bay of Charleston, 
beheld a sudden flash from a land battery, followed by a dull, 
heavy roar. 

The light of a bomb, describing a semicircle in the heavens, 
was seen to fall upon a fort barely outlined in the darkness. It 
was the first shot in the war of the great Rebellion. It was 
another shot "heard 'round the world/' It was the signal for 
the commencement of the greatest events in American history. 
Two days of heroic defense, and, with a prayer to God and a 
salute to the flag of Sumter, the loyal little garrison marched out 
of the citadel. The war to destroy the Government had begun: 
a war that was to cost a million of human lives, billions of 
treasure, agony unmeasurable, — a war to end in the disgraceful 
and utter annihilation of those who brought it about. 

In twenty-four hours, news of the event had, by telegraph 
and post, penetrated to every accessible corner of the American 
Republic. In the South, it was lightly hailed as the harbinger 
of dissolution of the Government, and the establishment of a 
new empire, whose foundation stone should be human bondage. 
In the North, it was received with mingled sadness and anger, 
followed by a quick determination to resent the outrage, and to 
save the Government of the people. 

It has been said that President Lincoln never put his name to 
a paper of greater import than his first message to Congress. In 
that paper, in calm, dignified expression, he showed to the world 
what it was that was bringing about rebellion on the part of the 
South against a government from which the South had derived 
all the advantages, all the honor, all the prestige, all the glory 
it had ever possessed. He pointed out how for thirty years the 
South had been debauched with the heresy of secession, and 

(27) 



28 IOWA IN" "WAR TIMES. 

how, rather than submit to the voice of an honorable majority, 
the result of a national election was made a pretext for destroy- 
ing the Government. The assault on Sumter, he asserted, had 
in no sense been an act of self-defense, for no Southerner had 
been attacked, nor his property threatened. It was assaulted 
simply with a purpose " to drive out the visible power of the Fed- 
eral Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution." " Thus," 
continued the President, " they have forced upon the country 
the distinct issue — dissolution or blood. The question involved 
is, whether discontented individuals, too few in number to con- 
trol the administration according to the organic law, can always, 
upon the pretenses made in this case, or any other pretenses, or 
arbitrarily, without pretenses, break up the Government, and 
thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth." 

The issue was thus perfectly clear, and a great war was to be 
waged to settle it on this continent. President Lincoln knew at 
that moment, as the world knows now, that his conduct in the 
crisis, and the conduct of those whom he might control, would 
settle forever the question of whether a republican form of gov- 
ernment could live in spite of internal foes. Whole volumes 
could not have presented the issue more clearly — but it required 
a million armed men to decide it. 

Within four days of that fatal shot on Sumter, Gov. Samuel J. 
Kirkwood, of Iowa, received from Simon Cameron, Secretary of 
War, the following telegram: "Gall made on you by to-night's 
mail for one regiment of militia for immediate service."* 

That regiment was ready to march before guns could be put 
in the soldiers 1 hands. That very day the Governor's proclama- 
tion announced to the people of Iowa that the nation was in 
peril, and that the aid of every loyal citizen was invoked. 

*This telegram was received at Davenport. The Governor resided then, 
as now, at Iowa City, but there was no telegraphic, communication in those 
days between the two towns. It was important that the dispatch go to the 
Governor at once, and Mr., afterward General, Vandever, volunteered to 
carry it to Lowa City. On reaching there, he drove out to the farm, and 
found the Governor, like Cinoinnatus, working in the field, and in home- 
spun. He looked the dispatch over, read it again, and in a surprised man- 
ner exclaimed: " Why, the President wants a whole regiment of men! Do 
you suppose I can raise so many as that, Mr. Vandever? " When ten Iowa 
regiments were offered, a few days later, the question was answered. 



THE WAK GOVERNOR. 29 

It was a crisis for every loyal state. To Iowa, whose people 
had ever followed closely in the paths of quiet peace, the possi- 
bility of a civil war at her doors seemed well nigh incredible; and 
yet when duty and danger called, no people in the Union were 
so ready with sacrifice. But in such a storm as now threatened, 
where was the mariner to guide the ship? Rocks showed them- 
selves on every hand. There were no arms worth counting in 
all the state; the treasury was empty; the taxes were unpaid; 
the cities and towns of the state were in debt — many of them 
had suspended payment of even interest; the business crisis that 
marked the years 1857-8 still hung about them like a pall; and 
amidst it all, treacherous enemies were waiting to hand the state 
over to ruin. 

Fortunately for Iowa, at such a time there was a man equal to 
the occasion. Like Lincoln, he seemed sent of Providence. The 
men who once went to a country mill near to Iowa City, and 
dragged its manager out into public life and important position, 
were now justified of their faith. Samuel J. Kirk wood, the 
" War Governor," richly merited the heroic title. He was hero- 
ism itself. He embodied in his character the self-poise, the 
calmness, the unbiased judgment, and, above all, that world of 
common sense that is the make up of a hero man; and he was a 
patriot. Before coming to young Iowa in 1855, his life, though 
honorable, had been uneventful. Born in 1813, in Maryland, 
of good Scotch-Irish descent, his early years were spent in toil 
about his father's farm and blacksmith shop. After a limited 
education, at McLeod's Academy in Washington City, he studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in Richland county, Ohio, in 
1843. Two years afterward, he was elected prosecuting attorney 
for four years, and in 1850 was a member of the convention 
that formed the present constitution of the state of Ohio. On 
coming to Iowa, in 1855, he undertook the management of a 
large farm and mill belonging to his brother-in-law near Iowa 
City. Within a year, his neighbors discovered his talents, and ; 
spite of much protest, elected him to the state senate in a 
largely democratic county. It was a " lost hope " he led in that 
election. No other republican dared to be a candidate. His 



30 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

success brought him into contact with the political leaders of 
the state. His abilities and his political integrity were recog- 
nized, and in 1859 he was chosen Governor of the state whose 
name and fame from that hour on were indentical with his own. 

Gov. Kirkwood did so many things honorable alike to the 
state, and to himself, said and did so many that were patriotic, 
and so many that were heroic, no excuse will be offered for 
recalling some of them at this stage, while some of the first regi- 
ments are getting their knapsacks on, and themselves into train- 
ing for battle. Other narratives of the War Governor's actions 
will follow along with the marching of the boys to the front. 

Gov. Kirkwood, like Senator Grimes, of good fame, had been 
a Democrat in earlier days, and now friends and foes alike 
were watching him in the new role, when his slightest word or 
act could produce consequences immeasurable. Three great vir- 
tues were now needed — calmness, patriotism, great good sense. 
Fortunately for Iowa, he possessed them all. Some of the 
things he said and wrote, like the things he did, became state 
history, and loyal precedent in Iowa for all time. His political 
opinions varied somewhat, of course, with the progress of the 
war, the resistance of the Rebels, and his new knowledge of men. 
He wished for no war, but he would not go as far as Lincoln did 
to prevent it. He would make some compromises as to slavery, 
but he would try and keep it out of the territories. " I would 
make the condition of the territory at the time of its acquisi- 
tion, its permanent condition until admitted as a state," he wrote 
to Senator Grimes in January of 1861. " Bat, first of all, comes 
respect for the Union and the laws. 11 * " What can I do, 1 ' he 

*Gov. Kirkwood had always believed slavery to be wrong and a curse to 
the country. Like many others, he had considered " colonization " as about 
the best method of settling the whole question. Frank P. Blair approved 
the Governor's ideas on the subject, and hoped that Iowa might become a 
" great leader" in the movement. That was in the John Brown days. Once, 
Blair wrote to Kirkwood urging this leadership. " Many of our leaders in 
the republican ranks," wrote he, "are in favor of colonizing our negroes; 
but it is in vain to hope that they will take a step forward until urged by 
the people. It is a misnomer to call such men leaders. The fact is tfaey 
never move until forced to do so by the pressure of the masses. If Iowa 
shall take the first step in this great scheme, she will be justly entitled to 
the title of Leader of the hosts of Freedom, and of carrying out practically 
the long cherished plans of Mr. Jefferson.'" Events were paving a juster, 
though a fiercer way for ending human slavery in the South. 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 31 

continued. " Shall I tender the services of the state to Mr. 
Buchanan? 1 ' 

This was long before Sumter was fired on. u Some of our 
people want an extra session. I do not. 1 ' "But," he adds, "I 
will see to it, that the last fighting man in the state, and the 
last dollar in the treasury are devoted to the service of the Gov- 
ernment, if Mr. Buchanan wants them." Mr. Buchanan, how- 
ever, wanted nothing of the kind. Buchanan's study was how 
to conciliate the South by giving them all they wanted, and 
more, by truckling to them in a manner too base for belief. 
There was a " Solid South " before Sumter was fired on first, as 
there has been a Solid South ever since, and, with it. a truckling, 
base, conciliatory party in the North, with nothing but its mas- 
ter's contempt as its reward. 

There were a few men, loyal ones, too, then in Iowa, who 
thought the republican party might better die off in the new 
crisis, and a so-called " Union " party take its place. Reuben 
Noble, Fitz Henry Warren and others, were quick to see their 
mistake. When the crash of arms grew louder, Noble's advice 
to Kirk wood, to bring about a "fusion" of Democrats and 
Republicans, urging Republicans to resign, that half their 
places might be filled with Democrats, fell on deaf ears. Kirk- 
wood knew that loyal Democrats would not wait on office, and 
as for the others, no loyal party in Iowa, at such a time, had any 
use for them. The dishonest cry for a "new party" went on, 
however, until, in the later months, it was drowned in a sea of 
loyal acclaim of the one party whose loyalty and upright inten- 
tions no man doubted. 

Mr. Lincoln's election and the events threatening, were rapidly 
driving men to choose once and forever which side they would 
be on in the coming contest. Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood 
had no need of a mentor, to show him where right and duty 
were. Mr. Lincoln's election had gratified him greatly. He had 
by wise counsel helped to bring it about, for he realized with 
John A. Kasson, who wrote the Chicago platform, that a con- 
servative, wise man would be needed in the perilous times 



32 IOWA 1ST WAR TIMES. 

already threatening.* Mr. Lincoln, he knew, was conservative 
and wise beyond other American statesmen. 

On the 13th of November, he wrote to the new President at 
Springfield : " Permit me to congratulate you, as I most heart- 
ily do, on your election to the presidency, and to express the hope 
that your administration may prove as useful to our country and 
as honorable to yourself, as you yourself can desire. 1 ' It was 
not a mere formal courtesy the note implied. Gov. Kirk- 
wood was a believer in the star of Abraham Lincoln. He 
believed in his straight-forwardness, his pure patriotism, and in 
his political ability. Shortly, he went to Springfield, 111., to pay 
the new President his respects. The visit was one of those not 
notable events, because not known. The honest, simple repub- 
lican Governor took no staff of newspapers along, to herald his 
coming or his going. In plain garb, and with the airs only of 
an honest man, he sought him who was to be the ruler of mill- 
ions, and whose fame was to go out into the whole earth. By 
accident, he met Mr. Lincoln walking in one of the streets of the 
town, and was requested, after a greeting, to go to the hotel and 
there wait the President's comiug in half an hour. There was 
not in the crowded corridors of the hotel, perhaps, one other 
man who bore about him so little of the airs of authority or 
place as the farmer-looking man in homespun, and with the 
broad hat, sitting there in the corner, an apparent stranger to 
every one present, There was a slight winking and nudging of 
elbows among the congregated politicians in the corridor, when 



*Des MorNES, Iowa, 17th April, 1860. 
Gov. S. J. Kikkwood, Iowa City : 

Dear Governor: I have your favor of the 13th, and the suggestion is a 
good one. We will act upon it. Since the election, I feel more than ever 
anxious about our Chicago nominations. I regard it as absolutely necessary 
that we secure the so-called conservative vote of the tree states, by offering 
to that element a moderate man, reserving for ourselves the guaranty of a 
thoroughly republican administration. Pray be at Chicago, if possible, to 
aid and influence the indiscreet by your counsel. The territorial issues will 
not again probably be so potential as now. Another lease of four years to 
democracy may secure them Cuba and secession. I sincerely believe that a 
failure now will make the next contest more than ever sectional, and its re- 
sult dissatisfactory. I propose to be at Chicago the last of the week previ- 
ous to the convention, and should be gla 1 then to meet you there. 

Very truly your friend, 

John A. Kasson. 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 33 

it was whispered that perhaps the old fellow in the corner was 
"waiting to see the President." The winks changed to wide 
open eyes when President Lincoln entered, passed by the obse- 
quious politicians, warmly greeted the plain old gentleman in 
homespun in the corner, and escorted him to his private rooms 
up stairs. Very soon it leaked out that the unpretentious man 
was the Governor of loyal Iowa. 

That hour spent in private interview with Abraham Lincoln 
was the birth-time of loyal resolutions. Mr. Lincoln was not 
afraid to trust a man like that. It was a relief to find one 
adviser who pretended only to plain common sense; a man who 
knew no policy save that of patriotism, and no politics save 
duty. In that hour's time, Mr. Lincoln saw that in in the com- 
ing storm his hands would be upheld. It was like an answer to 
his prayers for help — the coming of such a man; and the plain 
words and the common sense uttered were as a bulwark to him 
in the fierce storms of later days. That Mr. Lincoln learned, 
shortly, something still more of his Iowa guest, may be seen 
from the private letter of Mr. Hawkins Taylor, a friend of 
the new President.* Had Gov. Kirk wood accepted some 

*Keokuk, Jan. 20th, 1861. 
Dear Governor: I have been to Springfield again. I spent last week 
there. And if there is any man entitled to our sympathy it is Mr. Lincoln. 
He is thoroughly beset on all sides by the friends of different Cabinet aspir- 
ants. The moment it is understood that any particular man is to go into the 
Cabinet, the enemies, or rather the click, who want someone else to fill 
that particular place, at once beset Mr. Lincoln with all sorts of opposition 
to the appointment even to the lowest attack on private character. God only 
knows how things may be settled, both as to the Cabinet and the troubles of 
our common country. I will give you my notions of who will constitute the 
Cabinet: Seward, Sec. of State: Chase, Sec. Treasury; Cameron, War; 
Trumbull, Interior; Wells, P. M. G.; Bates, A tty. General; Clay, Navy. 
This, you will see, is not according to the papers, and it may be wide of the 
mark. It is not the intention to make Clay Sec. of Navy at this time, still 
I think that the war difficulties will either make him or probably continue 
Holt during the troubles as Sec. of War, and Cameron, Navy. If Cameron 
insists on being Sec. of Treasury, and will take nothing else, he ivill get it. 
and thus will be an entire change of the state in the Northwest. Smith and 
Warren may come in in the place of Trumbull and Wells, and New England 
will then get the Navy and Clay the War department. There is great dan- 
ger with the Cabinet. If Chase and Cameron go in there will be at least 
three Presidential aspirants, and none of the best friends to each other. I 
wanted Banks; he has more useful ability than any man in the Nation, and 
in my opinion would make the most efficient Secretary of State, Treasury, 
or Interior, that this Nation has ever had. Do you want anything that I 
could help you in getting? If you do, command me. Mr. Lincoln asked 
I. W. T.— 3 



34 IOWA Itt WAR TIMES. 

appointment away from the state, at the President's hands, as 
this letter intimates he might have done, Iowa's war record 
might have read quite differently. 

It was a memorable meeting, and vividly recalls to the Iowa 
patriot that other, later meeting, at Mentor, in Ohio, between 
Gov. Kirk wood and another President eleot — chosen, like Lin- 
coln, for the martyr's glory.* 

Immediately on his return to Iowa, Gov. Kirkwood set about 
putting the house in order for difficulties greater than were ever 
anticipated by Mr. Lincoln. In Iowa, the house needed setting 
in order, too. As has been said, there were almost no arms in 
the state, and none to be obtained. The few guns of primitive 
pattern, owned by Iowa, were in the hands of half organized, 
and undrilied companies of militia.f The state was so poor, 
following the crisis of '57, that its warrants could not be sold. 
It had four hundred thousand dollars of delinquent taxes, and 

me if you wanted anything. I told him that I did not think that you did; 
that I knew that you were not an office seeker; that you was a man who was 
fond of domestic life; that your honor in Iowa had rather been forced on you 
than otherwise; that your position was such that you could be U. S. Senator 
at the next Senatorial election if the party lived, and you desired it, and to 
be Senator, was, in my estimation, the most desirable office in the gift of 
the people. (To this proposition Mr. Lincoln fully assented and with much 
animation, said: " I would much rather be Senator for six years than be 
President.") And if you looked this way it was important that you should 
be with the people, and consequently would not want to leave the State. < I 
said to him that I did not know your feelings on the subject. If I was mis- 
taken, and in any way created a false impression, let me know, and I will 
with the greatest pleasure correct it. I frankly told Mr. Lincoln what I 
honestly believed to be true: that but few men rendered him so much service 
at Chicago as you did. Let me hear from you and you will find me ready to 
serve you now or hereafter. Yours most truly, 

Hawkins Taylor. 
Hon. S. J. Kirkwood, Iowa City, Iowa. 

*It was again the same, plain spoken, unpretentious man, whom Garfield 
saw before him, asking not his own, but others' advantage. Like Lincoln, 
President Garfield recognized the hero- man, and the meeting paved the 
plain man's way to the Cabinet— to the Council Seat of the Nation. 

fThe few arms belonging to the State were scattered about in the hands 
of militia companies. They were hurriedly gathered up, and with few but 

Eointed directions, put m counties where they were most needed. " Get the 
5 muskets of J. M. Byers, at Oskaloosa," wrote the Adjutant General to 
James Matthews of Knoxville, " and another 12 from E. Sells at Des Moines. 
and place yourself in defense against traitors. Your mission is to defend 
your country and yourselves against the enemies of your country. I have 
no doubt but that you know how to do it without special instructions from 
me." 




6 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 35 

only seven hundred thousand people. Corporations were in debt, 
individuals far from prosperous, and the state treasury empty. 
Add to it all, Indians on the frontier, and the coming storm of 
war. 

The crisis was coming, but a man of nerve was at the helm. 
In a month, Samuel J. Kirkwood struck the key-note to the tune 
that Iowa played in the war of the Rebellion. " The last man 
and the last dollar will be given, if needed, for the service of the 
Government" was his sentiment, and it became the sentiment of 
the people. To J. G. Lauman, at Burlington, he wrote, Janu- 
ary 16th: " Under the present condition of public affairs, I have 
concluded to gather and have repaired all the arms of the state* 
Men may not be needed from Iowa, but I will be ready. 11 " Our 
southern brethren, 11 he wrote to Senator Grimes, on January 
12th, appear really to be determined on the destruction of our 
government, unless they can change its whole basis, and make it 
a government for the growth and spread of slavery. Whatever 
comes, and at all hazards, the Union must be honored — the laws 
must be enforced. 11 His spirit of loyalty, when others were hes- 
itating, entered into every act and thought. He rejoiced to see 
the loyalty of others. To the Governor of Maryland he wrote 
sending his "own hearty thanks 11 and the thanks of the people 
of Iowa for the patriotic and manly stand he had taken against 
treason and disunion. " I have, I trust, an honest pride in 
knowing that the good old state (it was his native state), stands 
firmly to the Constitution and the Union in these trying days, 
when so many are disposed to abandon both." " This, 1 am satis- 
fied, is in a great measure due to the bold stand you have taken, and 
when passion shall have subsided, and love of country shall have 
again resumed the ascendant, your name will stand high on the 
roll of those whom the people delight to honor." 

Kirkwood^ key-note was soon taken up in all Iowa by press 
and people. The best thinking Democrats, alongside of Repub- 
licans, old Whigs and Abolitionists, wanted to support the 
Presidents hands. To Gov. Kirkwood, J. C. Bennett, a leading 
democrat, and the friend of Douglas, wrote: • 



36 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Polk City, March 9th, 1861. 
His Excellency, Sam'l J. Kirkwood, Governor of Iowa : 

I have just perused the President's Inaugural with great satisfaction, and 
shall sustain the administration whether my friend Judge Douglas and his 
supportei-3 do or not; but may God in his infinite mercy grant that Mr. 
Douglas may see his way clear to sustain Mr. Lincoln. The Inaugural is a 
better basis of settlement than any compromise yet offered, and T can see no 
reason why all Douglas Democrats cannot give the doctrines of the Inaugural 
a cordial support. 

I have written Mr. Lincoln to this effect, and requested him to show the 
letter to Judge Douglas. Since your interview with Mr. Lincoln, what are 
your views about filling up your staff, and being ready for an emer- 
gency? You have probably seen Gen. Bowen since your return home. I 
received a communication from him during your absence, stating that you 
would reply to my letter on your return. 

Very Truly Yours, 

J. C. Bennett. 

You may rely on my support of your entire administration unqualifiedly. 

B. 

Public sentiment in Iowa, even among Republicans, was 
scarcely fixed and formed at the beginning of the year 1861. 
The secession movement was still considered by many as only a 
threat. But thousands in the North, fearing that threat, advo- 
cated the repealing of the "personal liberty laws" all over the 
country, and the modification of other laws— of even the Con- 
stitution itself, in order to quiet the political bullies of the South, 
who were bent on rebellion. Very shortly, however, public 
opinion began to crystalize in the state of Iowa, and men rallied 
around a principle whose first foundation stone was i; the preser- 
vation of the Union, 1 ' and " the enforcement of all the laws." At 
Des Moines, on January the 8th, there was a mass meeting held 
at the suggestion of the Hon. H. M. Hoxie, to express the opinion 
of Iowa patriots on the national situation. Leading men attended 
from all over the state, and their names deserve recalling as 
among the first to publicly declare in Iowa that the government 
of the United States was worth fighting for, and should be perpet- 
uated, spite of law-breakers, North or South. Lengthy resolu- 
tions were passed, declaring that any laws, in any state, abso- 
lutely in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, 
should be repealed at once. But other compromise was not 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 37 

to be thought of. Gov. Kirkwood, John Teesdale, John A. 
Kasson and M. L. Morris were on the committee of resolutions. 
Hon. Elijah Sells was chairman, and the Hon. J. B. Grinnell 
was secretary of the meeting. Addresses were made, or parts 
taken, by patriots like Thomas Mitchell, S. C. Brownell, J. B. 
Stewart, S. H. Lunt, Stewart Goodrell, W. P. Davis, N. W. 
Mills, John A. Kasson, F. M. Mills, Thomas F. Withrow, Geo. 
G. Wright, Lewis Kinsey, Amos B. Miller, J. W. Jones, J. W. 
Cattell, Elijah Sells, L. H. Cutter, George Sprague, C Hayden, 
T. H. Shephard, F. W. Palmer, P. Melendy, H. G. Stewart and 
J. B. Grinnell. 

The resolutions were sent all over the state of Iowa for signa- 
tures, and were forwarded to Washington City as a sort of 
platform of the patriots of Iowa. Some of Gov. Kirkwood's 
own views of compromise, in January of 1861, are of interest, as 
set forth in a letter he addressed in that month to Iowa's Sena- 
ators and Representatives in Washington. It was a letter 
asking them to attend a meeting or convention proposed by the 
state of Virginia, to be held in Washington on the 4th of Feb- 
ruary. 

"I confess," he writes, " that the whole thing strikes me 
unfavorably. The early date set is liable to be construed as 
trying to force action before the meeting of Congress. The 
basis of adjustment proposed in the resolutions is one that all 
the free states rejected in the presidential election — the votes 
for Lincoln and Douglas being all against it. This indicates an 
expectation t|iat the free states shall stultify and degrade them- 
selves; or a purpose, by failure of the commissions to agree 
upon terms of adjustment, to afford excuse, or justification to 
those who are already determined to leave the Union. If you 
find the convention in earnest in trying to save the Union, 
permit me to make a few suggestions that may be of use to you. 
First — The true policy for any good citizen is to set his face, 
like flint, against secession. Second — To call it by its true name, 
treason; to use his influence in all legitimate ways to put it 
down; steadily and cordially to obey the laws, and to stand by 
the Government in all lawful measures it may adopt for its 



38 IOWA m WAR TIMES. 

preservation, and to trust to the people and the constituted 
authorities to correct, under the present constitution, any errors 
that may have been committed, or any evils or wrongs that may 
have been suffered. But if compromise must be the order of the 
day, then that compromise must not be a concession by one side 
of all the other side demands, nor all for which the conceding 
side has been contending. In other words, the North must not 
be expected to yield all the South asks, all the North has con- 
tended for and won, and then call that compromise. That is not 
compromise, and would not bring peace. Such compromise would 
not have become dry upon the parchment on which it would be 
written, before ' agitation ' for its repeal would have commenced. 
A compromise that will restore good feeling must not degrade 
either side." * 

Conventions for proposing compromise, provided the North 

*Speaking of this same convention, Curtis wrote : 

Washington, Feb. 5, 1861. 

Hon. Sam'l J. Kirkwood: 

Mi/ Dear Sir: Since writing you yesterday I was told Senator Grimes, 
who first said he would not go near the convention, has concluded to attend 
with me to-day, and Mr. Harlan will, when Grimes is in the Senate. 1 pre- 
sume Mr. Vandever will alternate with me. So that Iowa will not appear 
an obstinate outsider. 

A meeting of ultra Republicans was held last night, headed by Wisconsin 
men. I think some of our extreme North men have got a flea in their ear, 
about Canada, and really desire a disunion. In that I do not participate. 
I am for the whole Union, peacibly if I can, forcibly if I must. But this 
attempt to get a meeting of a portion of the Republicans together as " iron 
backs," without calling all of us, is evidently designed and calculated to 
divide our party. Did you ever see such madness? I had supposed in time 
of danger to the Republic, we should try to unite all parties. _ Such is my 
view of our duty. The news from Virginia, this morning, is favorable. 
If we can get the tide turned, traitors will yet get their deserts. Vir- 
ginia will have a decided influence in the border States. 

I am glad to see some attention has been given to the organization of 
our Iowa force. If trouble goes on, the volunteer companies should be 
so reconstructed that in case of necessity the companies would go imnie* 
diately on a term of service, say six months, or a year's time. I found 
in Ohio, when we called for volunteers for actual service, our finest corps 
were non est. All the arms we have should be in the hands of men 
that will use them if occasion requires. In anything of a military kind, 
move quietly. I have said this much to others, and such a course is being 
taken in some quarters of the Union. 

The peace conventions and peace propositions all tend to divide the 
South, and gain time. In view of future necessity for force, time is of 
great military advantage to us. The 4th of March will be a point gained. 

Truly Yours, 

Sam'l R. Curtis. 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 39 

would make all the concessions, were the order of the day in the 
border states in the winter of 1861. The state of Kentucky also 
tried one — a purely democratic one, on Washington's birthday, 
and the Governor of Iowa was invited to attend. He did not go, 
but wrote a letter. Possibly the "National Convention," as 
they called it, did not get the advice it cared for, but it did get a 
letter full of sound sense, calm politics, and honest conviction. 
Kirkwood was no longer a Democrat. He had become, first of 
all, a patriot; after that, a Republican. Within a fortnight, 
February 14th, the Governor strengthened the hands of the Iowa 
delegation at Washington by writing to them not to yield any 
important principle at that Virginia Convention. 

" I thought it well to have the state represented, but I never 
would, there or elsewhere, yield the principle for which we 
have contended. Concession of any kind, in the face of armed 
and menacing treason, is very dangerous. It establishes a pre- 
cedent that reduces our government to a level with that of 
Mexico. If the South is 'conceded ' back, New England may 
secede. What will be done then ? Time is worth everything. So 
far as heard, every military company in the state, except one, has 
promptly and cheerfully tendered its services when called for. 
I sincerely hope our friends will stand together. Either a conces- 
sion of our principles, or a division among ourselves, hands the 
country over for the next twenty years to corruption, filibuster- 
ism and slavery extension." 

But the loyalty of the people was not to be expressed by words 
alone. By the middle of January already, in that year of shame 
and disaster, militia companies were offered to the Governor to 
aid in maintaining the laws. According to the record, the first 
to tender their services were the members of the Washington 
" Light Guards," Captain H. R. Cowles, of the toimi of Wash- 
ington. The Governor's letter of acceptance,* dated January 

*Exkcutive Office, January 17th, 1861. 
H. R. Cowles, Capt. Washington Light Guards, Washington, Iowa: 
Sir: In these days, when cabinet officers plot treason, and use their offi- 
cial positions to bankrupt and disarm the government they were sworn to 
support, when members of both branches of our national council openly 
engage in endeavoring to overthrow the government of which they are the 
sworn servants, and retain their places and prostitute their powers to thwart 



40 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the 17th, burned with patriotism. On the 24th of January* 
he wrote to Joseph Holt, Secretary of War, tendering to him the 
services of the " Governor's Greys, 11 Capt. Frank J. Herron, of 
Dubuque. This was the first company tendered to the general 
government by the state of Iowa.* The " Burlington Rifles,'' 
Capt. C. L. Matthies, were accepted by the Governor on the 
26th of January, though their tender of services was of a few 
days earlier date.f 

the efforts of those who loyally seek to maintain that government; when in 
one portion of our country, delirious with passion, they regard the firing 
upon our national flag, the seizure of our national forts and the plunder of 
our national arsenals and treasuries, as manly, honorable and patriotic ser- 
vice; when in another portion of our country a few men, blinded by partisan 
prejudice, can be found who justify those acts and say they must not be pun- 
ished, — when, in short, men are found in high places so lost to patriotism 
as to imitate the treason of Benedict Arnold, and so lost to shame as to glory 
in their infamy, and find followers and upholders, it is gratifying to know 
that the gallant yeomanry of Iowa are still determined "to march under 
the flag and keep step to the music of the Union." I accept with pleasure 
the services of the " Washington Light Guards " so frankly tendered, and 
should events render it necessary, shall promptly call you to the field to 
defend that flag under which our fathers fought so bravely, and to maintain 
that Government they founded so wisely and so well. 

Very respectfully, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 

*Executive Office, Iowa, January 24th, 1861. 
Hon. Joseph Holt, Secretary of War, Washington, City, D. C: 

Sir: I have the honor to enclose a letter tendering to the President the 
services of the "Governor's Greys," a military company at Dubuque, in this 
state. The services of other military companies have been tendered directly 
to me. While I deeply regret that the perils to which the Union of the 
states is exposed arise from domestic, and not foreign foes, I feel a great, 
and I think an honest pride in the knowledge that the people of Iowa are 
possessed of an unyielding devotion to the Union, and of a fixed determina- 
tion that so far as depends on them, it shall be preserved. 

Very respectfully, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 

tExECTJTiVE Office, Iowa, January 26th, 1861. 
C. L. Matthies, Capt. Burlington Rifle Co., Burlington Iowa: 

Dear Sir: Accept for yourself and the company you command, my 
thanks for the tender of their services, " in case of any public event involv- 
ing the necessity of arms." Should any such event occur, I shall accept the ser- 
vices so gallantly tendered. I am pleased to know that you and your command 
believe that the flag of our country is worthy of preservation, and that the 
men who first upheld the one and established the other did not intendto 
have both at the mercy of rebels and traitors. I hope to be in your citv 
about the first of Feb., and will endeavor to see you and consult with you in 
regard to arms. Very respectfully, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 

[Unfortunately the letter of Capt. Matthies, tendering his company is not 
among the state records. By persons acquainted with the facts at the time, 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 41 

In a few days, numerous other companies were tendered; the 
" Union Guards," Capt. W. S. Robertson, of Columbus City; 
the " Burlington Zouaves," and the " Mt. Pleasant Greys," — all 
within a few days or hours of each other, and this long before 
Sumter had been fired on. 

It was Iowa's answer to South Carolina's secession at that 
noonday of December 20th. It was the answer to the thousand 
threats of destruction to the government and people, made at 
every public mart throughout the South. It was Iowa's answer 
to the cry that " the South would not submit to the election of 
Abraham Lincoln, nor to Black Republican rule." 

But now the hour had come for fiercer answers. Sumter was 
fired on. The roar of the rebel guns wakened the loyal hearts 
from Maine to California. The North was in a blaze of patriot- 
ism — though the South, which had not given Lincoln a single 
electoral vote, sang its paeans of joy that now restraint was 
ended, and, as it hoped, the government of the United States 
destroyed. That hour, too, sounded anew the knell of human 
slavery in the United States of America. Possibly man did not 
intend it, but the Almighty did. 

it was, and still is believed, that that letter antedated the letter of Capt. 
Cowles. Mr. Frank Phelps, associate editor of the Burlington Hawkeye at 
the time, states that Matthies asked him to tender the company to the Gov- 
ernor, and that it was done about January 1st. If correct, this would make 
Capt. Matthies's tender not only the first in Iowa, but one of the first in the 
United States. J 



CHAPTER III. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR— MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT— 
Continued. 

" Ten days ago there were two parties in Iowa," wrote Gov. 
Kirkwood to the President. " Now, there is only one, and 
that one for the Constitution and the Union unconditionally.'" 
What patriotic days those were in loyal Iowa — those Sumter 
days! For awhile it seemed as if all party rancor had died out, 
with but one single sentiment animating every breast alike — the 
one resolve to avenge the insult at Sumter, and to save the 
Union. 

In the state's financial extremities, Gov. Kirkwood had 
secured the money for sending the first regiment to rendezvous 
by his own exertions, and the exertion of two or three personal 
friends. Money had to be had, and the Governor gave his own 
personal bonds, pledging all his own property and earnings, 
many times over, that the first soldiers of the state might have 
shoes to wear, blankets to sleep on, and bread to eat. 

Then came the patriotism of the banks of Iowa. Many of 
them offered the aid the state needed in its distress, without 
pledge and without bond. Men like Senator J. K. Graves, of 
Dubuque, offered loans to the state of many thousands of dollars 
without a thought as to when, if ever, the money might be re- 
turned. That meant patriotism, and Senator Graves was the 
first to risk his property that Iowa honor might be main- 
tained.* u You are authorized to draw on us for any sum you 

*The very morning after Sumter was fired on, J. K. Graves and R. E. 
Graves, his brother, telegraphed the Governor, saying they would claim it an 
honor and privilege to honor his drafts to the extent of thirty thousand dol- 
lars; leaving repayment to the pleasure of the state, if it could help equip 
and send the boys to the front. It was the same spirit that later led these 
same men to hurry a car load of stores to the suffering of Chicago before 
the houses of the doomed city were done burning down. It was the prompt 
and splendid example of these men that soon led thousands of others to 
open their purses for the help of the state and its soldiers. They proved the 
maxim, too, that "he gives twice who gives promptly." 

(42) 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 43 

may need," was a common message telegraphed to the Governor 
from the branch banks in different parts of the state. W. T. 
Smith, of Oskaloosa, and other strong war Democrats, also came 
forward and promptly tendered money to the state. The rail- 
roads offered to carry the soldiers free, and private citizens in every 
town vied with one another in personal sacrifice to aid in the 
good cause. 

Patriotism burned at its very height. The Governor had 
called for but one regiment; that was on April 17th. Within 
a week, twenty-one companies were offered, and in a short time 
every organized militia company in the state, with one single 
exception, was tendered to defend the flag. Then commenced, 
too, the organizing of volunteer companies for the war. There 
was but one sentiment — " the Union. 1 ' For a while party dis- 
tinctions disappeared entirely. Even the old sympathizers with 
slavery were silent, and the moss-back demagogues who had no 
patriotism in their thin-blooded veins, shouted for the preserva- 
tion of the Union. Those who were not loyal kept it secret, and 
publicly cheered for the flag. The newspapers talked of nothing 
but the war, and many kept flags and patriotic songs perma- 
nently at the head of their columns. Their editorials were of 
loyalty to the country, and the very advertisements teemed with 
hints to stir the patriotism of the people. Republicans and 
Democrats met in the same rooms, forgetting their animosities, 
and talked only of Sumter and the South. In Martinsburg, Re- 
publicans and Democrats held a war meeting together and tore 
their partisan flags in pieces, to splice them in one common ban- 
ner. At Aledo, the Democrats aud Republicans took their party 
poles, cut them in two, spliced half of each together, and put 
the Union flag on top. 

At little Brighton, $1,250, cash, was raised in a few minutes 
from Republicans and Democrats alike, and as much more prom- 
ised, to help feed and clothe the boys who volunteered. Jesse 
Bowen presented the state with a brass eight-pounder cannon, 
and eighty rifles. That was the kind of a present Iowa needed 
then, as much as money. The Governor thanked Bowen for his 
patriotic gift, in the name of all Iowa. Those who could not 



44 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

fight, gave of their substance. The little community of 
Amana, in Iowa count}'', sent the Governor a present of a 
thousand dollars, to help clothe the Iowa soldiers. Later, the 
same society gave from its scanty means five hundred dollars 
more. Doctors offered their services to the enlisting soldiers, 
gratis. The women of the state did even more than the men. 
No sacrifice of means, of time, of labor of deft hands — no strug- 
gle of breaking heart, was too much for those, who, with their 
blessings and their prayers, were sending fathers, husbands, sons, 
brothers and lovers to battle to save the country. Wives of 
Senators, Representatives, and men in high place — women of po- 
sition, of comfort, left their ease to sew and labor for the enlist- 
ing soldiers. In six days, the women of Burlington, with Mrs. 
Senator Grimes at their head, made three hundred soldiers 1 coats 
and haversacks. It was the same in every town and village and 
hamlet in the state — the " Woman's Relief Corps" being always 
the first and noblest organization of the place. 

The church, with the press, took up the patriotic song all 
over the state. Ringing sermons of patriotism were preached 
from every pulpit. Every prayer ended with a benediction on 
the soldiers going to the front. To serve the state, at that 
hour, was to serve the Lord. The patriotism of the land was the 
religion of the land. Sermons were preached by men like Wil- 
liam Salter of Burlington, Thomas Merrill of Newton, Asa 
Turner of Denmark, and scores of others, that made men shoul- 
der their muskets to fight as they had prayed. The anti-slavery 
clergy saw in the action of the Rebels, the doom of slavery, and 
thanked the Lord. The Wyoming Conference resolved: — 
" Whereas, Divine Providence has taken the work of emancipa- 
tion into His own hands— therefore resolved, that we stand still 
and see the salvation of God. 1 ' 

There seemed but one sentiment abroad. " How many of the 
people of your town are in sympathy with this Northern crusade 
on the South ?" wrote a planter to a Northern wholesale merchant; 
" we purchasers of your dry goods are interested in knowing." 
The merchant replied by expressing to the planter a copy of the 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 45 

town director)/. The merchant's answer would have been a true 
index just then to the loyalty of every town in Iowa. 

The first regiment was formed and ready for the march two 
weeks before the time designated by the Government, and many 
companies all over the state waited anxiously for their oppor- 
tunity. So far, only the one regiment had been demanded, but 
Gov. Kirkwood sent Senator Grimes to Washington to urge 
on the President the acceptance of more Iowa troops. In the 
meantime, he urged the people at home to keep up their mili- 
tary organizations, and to form from farm and village, bodies of 
"minute men," as did our fathers in the Revolution — neglecting 
neither plough nor anvil, yet prepared to march on an hour's 
notice. Uniforms and even arms were impossible to obtain; nor 
was there even legal authority for their purchase, were they ob- 
tainable by borrowed money. At his own risk, the Governor 
sent the Hon. Ezekie) Clark, himself a most devoted pat- 
riot, to Chicago, to buy cloth for fifteen hundred uniforms. 
He reckoned on tbe deft hands of Iowa's loyal women for their 
making up for nothing. He did not reckon in vain. " Let the 
material be strong and durable," he added in his official note to 
Clark. There was to be no shoddy in the coats of Iowa soldiers, 
if bought by her loyal Governor, and made by her loyal women. 

The first regiment was ordered by the War Department to 
rendezvous at Keokuk. The Governor urged Davenport as the 
better point, as Keokuk had no direct railroad east in those days, 
and not even a line of telegraph. The change to Davenport was 
not made, however. Keokuk's proximity to the distracted, half 
rebel state of Missouri, made that city a near point to start from 
southward. It required a letter from three to five days to reach 
Des Moines, or the center of the state, and its lines of communi- 
cation were poor in all directions. To reach the interior of the 
state quickly, the Burlington Hawkey e Company advertised 
for a "pony express " to carry its papers from Eddyville to Des 
Moines, a distance of seventy-five miles — time to be eight hours* 

Never in the history of the state did a Governor have such a 
burden, such a variety and such a vexation of duties. All fell 
upon his own personal shoulders. He had no aides, no staff, — not 



4b IOWA IK WAR TIMES. 

even a private secretary, at first, — and yet the pressing business, 
the overwhelming correspondence, permitted of no delay. Stenog- 
raphers and type-writers were unknown at executive headquar- 
ters. Only an exceptionally strong body, and the kindness of a 
few friends who volunteered to help in the correspondence, 
made it possible for the accumulating business to be pushed 
along. A quiet, simple peace establishment had suddenly thrust 
upon it the burdens of a war footing. The cry for " muskets," 
u more muskets," came up from every quarter of the state, and 
there were no muskets to send. " For God's sake send us arms," 
wrote the Governor to Simon Cameron on the 29th of April, 
1861. " I ask for nothing but arms and ammunition — we have 
the men to use them. Three regiments are waiting, and five 
thousand guns are required at once." 

The Adjutant General's office was as much overrun with the 
new business as was the office of the chief executive; but for- 
tunately it, too, was filled by a zealous patriot and a competent 
man. No labor was too great, no sacrifice too much, for the 
patriotism of Jesse Bowen, Iowa's Adjutant General at the 
breaking out of the battle storm. 

On the 6th of May, the First regiment of Iowa infantry vol- 
unteers was ordered into rendezvous at Keokuk, by the Governor. 
The Captains of the ten companies were, Matthies, Mahanna, 
Mason, Cummins, Streaper, Cook, Gottschalk, Wise, Wentz and 
Herron. Some of these names became famous as the war 
went on, and scores of the private soldiers comprising the regi- 
ment earned honorable commissions at the mouths of rebel 
cannon. Mr. I. K. Fuller went with the regiment as Chaplain, 
and Mrs. Fuller was the first regimental nurse to volunteer in 
the state. 

Tenders of volunteer companies reached the Governor daily, 
and the urgings for their acceptance for the country's defense 
were little short of angry declarations, so eager were all for the 
fray. The War Department thought it had no need for more 
than a thousand men from Iowa, and the Governor was greatly 
embarrassed as to what to do with so many companies pressing 
for acceptance. He had not yet secured proper arms, spite of 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 47 

efforts made in every direction to buy in the market, or even 
to borrow of Illinois. The money he was borrowing of the 
state banks, to meet urgent expenses, was without sanction of 
law, leaving him personally liable for it all. All over the state, 
companies were kept together drilling, their subsistence fur- 
nished by boards of supervisors or by patriotic citizens, some of 
whom not only helped subsist the would-be soldiers, but fur- 
nished them uniforms at their own expense. Men who could 
not conveniently abandon business to volunteer, feared no sacri- 
fice of labor and money that could add to the comforts of those 
who could volunteer. The extent of the patriotism, the sacrifices, 
the courage, the great loyal-heartedness of the men at home in 
Iowa, who stood like a bulwark behind the soldiers, cheering and 
supporting them and maintaining their families, is simply beyond 
reckoning. Without this phenomenal support, without this loyal 
holding up of the arms of the soldiers, success in the war would 
have been impossible. There were as great patriots, as sacrificing 
men and women, holding the plow and threading the needle at 
home in Iowa, as there were facing the cannon in the South. Their 
names should be written in letters of gold. They bore the sacri- 
fice and the heart-breaks of war without the excitement and the 
glory of the contest as reward. Many of them impoverished 
themselves that our soldiers might have aid — quiet, duty-doing 
patriots and heroes, whose names never flamed in the bulletins, 
who did duty because it was duty. Their names in Iowa are 
legion, and a grateful state will think of them, as it thinks of 
the sons, husbands and brothers whom it sent to the field. 

Under the pressure of the offers of companies, the Governor 
accepted a second regiment, without waiting on the requisition 
of the Department of War. It, too, was placed in rendezvous 
at Keokuk, and without arms. " For God's sake, send us arms," 
telegraphed the Governor to Simeon Draper, President of the 
Union Defense Committee, at New York, on the 2d of May. 
41 Our First regiment has been in drill a week, a thousand strong. 
It has tents and blankets, but no arms. The Second regiment is 
full, and drilling. Send us anus. Ten thousand men can be 
had, if they can have arms." 



48 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

By the middle of May, he had the Legislature of Iowa together 
in extraordinary session. What a session it was! Half of its 
members seemed to be drunken with mere words. Most of them 
were patriotic, exuberantly so, but lacking in the common-sense 
wisdom demanded by the gravity of the occasion. The Gov- 
ernor explained to them briefly the causes of their extraordinary 
meeting, and in closing his address to them, begged them to be 
calm, though prompt and thorough. " Let us look our situa- 
tion squarely in the face, and address ourselves to, and do our 
duty like men who believe that while we hold to our fathers' 
faith, and tread in our fathers' steps, the God of our fathers 
will stand by us in the time of our trial, as he stood by them in 
the time of theirs." 

A resolution and a promise to sustain the Government to the 
extent of every man in the state and by the pledge of money to 
any extent required, passed by the unanimous voice of the 
Assembly. There seemed to be no end at first to the unanimous 
and jubilant patriotism expressed in every act, and in every 
resolve of those politicians. Unfortunately for certain of those 
pretended patriots, their first resolves were dishonest, and their 
loud speeches as to duty and loyalty, but empty declarations. 
When the important measure of the session came up, the pro- 
viding of a loan of $800,000, to put the state on a decent war- 
footing, many of the old Democrats, true to their instinct for 
the protection of slavery and wrong, voted against the bill. 

Twenty-four Democrats, and not one Republican, voted to 
leave the state of Iowa in a defenseless condition, when the 
slave-holders' Rebellion had the Government by the throat. 
The opponents of the loan bill were: Beal, Bracewell, Ben- 
nett, Campbell, Justus Clark of Des Moines, Conner. Curtis, 
Doggett, Dunlavey, J. C. Hall of Des Moines, Hotehkiss, Jen- 
nings, Jones, Lelacheur, McCullough of Jackson, Reed, Riddle, 
M. W. Robinson of Des Moines, Stevens, Taylor, Whitaker, 
Williams, and Williamson of Warren. 

This vote was the test of the loyalty of many of the leaders 
of the old democratic party in Iowa — of men who went to that 
Assembly under the cloak of patriotism, promising that all 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 49 

issues — only duty to country — should be buried. As usual, by 
their votes they were misrepresenting the feeling of the people 
who honored them with seats in the Assembly, for at that hour 
the masses of the democratic people of Iowa were disposed to 
be loyal to their country. For seven days the members of the 
House kept their senses. Then commenced a series of proposi- 
tions looking to "conventions 11 — to "compromise, 1 ' supported, too, 
by not a few loyal Republicans who forgot for the moment that 
there could be no compromise, no convention with traitors in arms, 
so long as the laws of the land were set at defiance. A treaty of 
peace with a band of robbers would have been as proper and just 
as a convention with Rebels who claimed that the Government 
no longer existed. Judge Hall of Burlington, though a well 
meaning man, sought to have a committee sent to Missouri to 
treat with Gov. Jackson, one of the first men to betray his own 
state. Hall forgot, apparently, how absolute too, is the clause 
in our Constitution, forbidding states to enter into treaties and 
alliances with one another. Senator Duncombe urged the cessa- 
tion of hostilities entirely, as did numerous of his associates, who 
lacked but the opportunity to prove that their loyalty was only 
feigned. The session voted the $800,000 loan, in spite of the 
villainous opposition. It re-organized the militia of the state, 
voted money for the purchase of five thousand stand of arms, 
five thousand dollars for the building of an arsenal at Des Moines, 
— and then, fortunately for its own credit, the members adjourned 
and went home. Its proceedings and debates had sounded more 
like a "peace 11 congress than an assembly of deputies of a people 
bound to preserve the dignity of the law, and the Union of the 
States — not by compromise, now, but by the cannon and the 
sword. 

It was not a month till the opponents of putting down the 
Rebellion by force, came out under their true colors in Iowa. 
They had been patriots none of the time. Shortly the Halls, 
the Masons, the Palmers, the Byingtons, the Van Bennetts, the 
Neguses, the Duncombes, the Johnsons, the Mahoneys, the Clag- 
getts and all the rest who secretly or openly sympathized with 
the traitors who were preparing to slay Iowa^ brave sons in 
I. W. T.— 4 



50 IOWA IX WAR TIMES. 

battle, ranked themselves in line as a wing of the democratic 
party in Iowa. It was not the true democratic party, for that 
was loyal still, spite of its suffering for the sins of its allies and 
bosom friends. By midsummer of 1S61, the Iowa snakes com- 
menced to crawl out and spit their venom on the Union soldier. 
It was a patient, long-forbearing people in Iowa then, that did 
not rise in its wrath and swing these worst opponents of their 
country from the nearest gallows. Possibly, the ignominy that 
was to follow Iowa " Copperheads'' (a title they were soon to be 
known by), through life, was a punishment worse than death. 
To them, however, disgrace and ignominy seemed nothing. 
Whatever they could do to discourage volunteering, or to crip- 
ple the state or general government, was done. In the very days 
when our armies were struggling with disaster at Bull Run. the 
Iowa Copperheads were in council resolving against the loyal 
actions of the administration. On the 22d of July, when the 
Bull Run cannon were not yet cool, the branch of the demo- 
cratic party called the " Mahoney Wing," met in convention at 
Des Moines, and declared the $S00,000 state loan unconstitu- 
tional, any effort at coercion of the Rebels as little less than 
crime, and denounced the President. 

It was in proper keeping with the sentiments of this conven- 
tion, held in the interests of the Rebels, that a rebel flag-raising 
by one hundred secessionists should have taken place about the 
same time in the little town of Ossian. In Marion count}', on 
the 10th of July, 1861. one of these opposition meetings resolved 
that: •"Under the administration of President Lincoln, we 
"behold our beloved country distracted at home, and disgraced 
" abroad. 

" Commerce paralyzt d .' " 

1 ' Tra de ann ih ila ted ! " 

" Coasts blockaded ! n 

"Rivers shut up! " 

•' The Constitution trampled under foot!" 

" Citizens imprisoned .' " 

"Laics suspended .' " 

"Legislatures overaiced by bayonets!" 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 51 

'• Debts repudiated" and 

"States invaded and disme)nbered!*" 

No party in South Carolina could have passed resolutions 
more treasonable. 

The anticipated result naturally followed the expression of 
such sentiments by party leaders. The more ignorant of the 
copperhead party, for a party it had really become, now sincerely 
believed the administration guilty of great crimes. Obstacles 
were thrown in its way, and in the way of every loyal movement 
in the state. Disorganizers, and the discontented of every kind, 
vagabonds and ruffians out of the old democratic party, allied 
themselves with the traitors 1 camp, and shortly the copperhead 
party of Iowa became little better than a band of conspirators. 
Their meetings were held in secret, and their deeds were more 
dangerous and venomous, a hundred fold, than the open, armed 
rebellion in the South. No wonder the survivors of that igno- 
minious band, the copperhead party of Iowa, after twenty-five 
years, hide their faces iu shame at the mention of its name. 
From their children's children they would ward the stigma 
attaching to the name of au " IowaCopperhead."' 

One day only after the convention of the Copperheads at Des 
Moines, the so-called " Union " convention met, and proved an 
utter failure. The real object of this body was to try and 
rehabilitate the old democratic party, then in bad odor, and in 
fearful danger of dissolution, owing to the disloyalty of a whole 
wing of its organization. The few Republicans cajoled into 
aiding the measure received their reward in defeat and ridicule. 
The republican party was " Union " enough for real, honest 
patriots, and the Mahoney Democrats treasonable enough for 
the disloyal. Only twenty counties were in any way represented 
at the convention. What the real intentions of the promoters 
of the so-called Union party were, was pointed out to the Gov- 
ernor in a letter from the Hon. J. M. Beck.* 

*Fort Madison, May 23d, 1861. 
Hon. S. J. Kirkwood, Des Moines: 

Dear Sir: I humbly conceive that the principles of slavery restriction, 
which you and I, in common with all republicans, esteem of such vital impor- 
tance, and to sustain and establish which we have for years labored, and sev- 



52 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

While the midnight assassins of the copperhead party were 
holding their first secret conclaves, in July, 1861, the Governor 
of Iowa was in Washington City begging of the government 
more and better arms for his brave men. The action of the 
state's opponents here in Iowa, together with the outrageous 

ered all political connections not consistent therewith, are now in more 
danger of destruction and overthrow than at any time since they have 
become questions dividing the political parties of the country; and that if 
we are saved from non-intervention Crittenden Compromise or something 
worse, it must be done by the steady and firm portion of the republicans in 
a rigid adherence to our platform. 

I am -well satisfied that a large (very large) proportion of democratic lead- 
ers in Iowa are pro-slaver;/ in principle and feeling. I judge the whole mass 
by those around me. Their leading journals plainly indicate it. At this 
time these papers and politicians advocate a union of parties — the throwing 
away of party platforms and organizations, and the inauguration of a grand 
Union party, to embrace all of those who now support the government. Such 
is their talk here and they have enlisted quite a number of weak, kind and 
aspiring republicans into their way of thinking and talking. Where this is 
done I am well satisfied that at the first show of a white flag, and a demand 
for a parley by the rebels, every prominent democrat will be for a settlement 
of the trouble upon any terms favorable to the extension of slavery, be they 
the Crittenden Compromise or anything even worse, if it can be thought of. 
They will carry their new formed Union party with them and the war will 
be ended and slavery iviil be nationalized. I am brought to this way of 
thinking from the fact that I knoiv the hearts of prominent democrats are 
not in the war — they are continually talking of a humane, brotherly and 
defensive ivar, and wondering and surmising what will be the state of 
things when it is ended — they are always ready to criticise unfavor- 
ably the acts of the Government and her officers, as they did in the 
Camp Jackson affair. If a word be said against the evils of slavery, 
or in favor of slavery restriction, they throw up their hands in horror 
and charge Republicans with an intention of interfering with the Con- 
stitutional rights of the South — they are continually abusing and finding 
fault with republican officials and prominent republican politicians. 
Your own case is a fair illustration. They have more abuse for you 
than they have for Claib. Jackson. Such is the spirit of the papers and 
leaders of the democracy, and all the time they are advocating union of par- 
ties, and such stuff. Now many republicans have been silly enough to be 
caught in the trap set for them, and are aiding these pro-slavery demagogues 
to overthrow our party and our principles. This thing must be averted or 
we will end in being tied hand and foot and delivered over to the Philis- 
tines. If our party takes a proper stand and openly declares for the princi- 
ples of our platform, and that, come what may, we intend to enforce them, 
the greater proportion of the rank and file of the democracy will be with us, 
and the leaders will be left on the old rotten hulk to go to the bottom with 
it. But if we join in union with them our true men will be turned out of 
positions of public trust and then wire pullers put in, and the end of the 
matter will be that these pro-slavery leaders of the democracy will have the 
settling of the vital and most important questions which will be brought 
forth when the rebels are conquered. I will not be a party to any move 
which will give power or influence to the rotten pro-slavery politicians of the 
democratic party. 

Yours, etc., 

J. M. Beck. 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 53 

conduct, of some of their sympathizers, led on by the New York 
Herald in the East, had made the sale of Iowa bonds, authorized 
by the Legislature, an impossibility. The Governor advertised 
them in all eastern markets — still sales could not be had, and 
the first regiments in camp were clothed and fed by money bor- 
rowed on the personal security of Gov. Kirkwood, the Hon. 
Hiram Price, and the Hon. Ezekiel Clark. A trio of better pat- 
riots never existed. Not in years did the old soldiers in camp 
forget those who proved benefactors when their state and them- 
selves were in distress. 

The difficulties of organizing the new regiments, when only 
money borrowed on individual security could be obtained, and 
when the enemies of the country in Iowa were secretly hinder- 
ing volunteering, continued. To make the matter worse still, 
numerous disappointed and discontented Republicans joined in 
the democratic cry for the abandonment of the republican 
party, and the organizing of the so called "Union" party; as if 
the old republican party were itself not thoroughly union, and 
intensely loyal. 

" It is a dishonest cry, this ' Union ' business, and hypocritical 
patriotism, ,1 wrote a republican leader to the Governor. " The 
masses of the Democrats may be all right — their leaders are not. 
De Tocqueville once said; ' There is no patriotism among party 
leaders in America — that is all confined to the people. 1 The past 
few months prove this to be true as to the democratic party. 
The ungovernable loyal impulse of our whole people has com- 
pelled these democratic leaders to make a p?etense of loyalty. 
It is a pretense only ; events will prove it. Republicans are now, 
and always were, loyal to the Union. These democratic politi- 
cians have professed ',he same feeling — yet, now the crisis comes, 
and they cry, ' Give us the offices; join us in a Union party, or 
we desert to the enemy.' Down with such hypocrisy ! Let us 
go straight ahead in the right. Let the Democrats follow if 
they will; if not, let them go down." 

The Republicans who allowed themselves to be deceived and 
cajoled by this dishonest cry of a Union party, lived to see their 
mistake, and how very near they came to being simply disloyal. 



54 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Honest and patriotic Democrats who detested the copperhead 
wing of their own party, were as little to be deceived as were 
true Republicans, by this game to advance party hacks at the 
expense of honesty. The3 r did not wait for the tried and true 
Republicans to come over to them in some sort of a bastard 
" Union," but promptly entered the republican camp by thous- 
ands, regardless as to party name, or no name, and by thous- 
ands acted with them, volunteered with them, bravely fought 
with them, and by thousands died with them on the field of 
battle. 

On the 4th of July the national Congress assembled in extra 
session. President Lincoln had delayed calling it together, prin- 
cipally because of vacancies that could not be filled earlier. 
The pitiable spectacle was soon offered of national Representa- 
tives at the Nation's capital, offering to trade with treason. 
What had been done or proposed, in the Assembly of Iowa, was 
repeated at Washington, on a larger and more nefarious scale. 
Many of the Rebels themselves dared to retain their seats in 
Congress for a time, the better to aid treason, and the Republi- 
cans of the North dared to permit the infamy. There is every 
reason to believe that had the Rebels delayed firing on Sumter 
until Congress met, there would have been no war, such a crowd 
of compromising conciliators had the national Representatives 
from the North become. With such delay, the Rebels might 
have received all they wished or dared to demand from the 
United States Congress, and have left the Union in peace. The 
Jtand of Providence was in it all — the Union teas to he saved, ami 
slavery was to perish. 

While Congress was paralyzed with fear, and offering to com- 
promise with traitors, the hand of the Almighty was crowding 
events along to the last appeal. Bull Run alarmed the North, but 
it also roused the people to the true and awful meaning of war. 
Two mighty mobs of untrained men had met, and the North 
had suffered ignominy and defeat. Iowa's answer to the awful 
tidings, was the quick assembling of more regiments of troops. 
Within a month from "Bull Run, Iowa had seven thousand men 
in the field, principally in Missouri, and some five thousand in- 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 55 

fantry and cavalry in rendezvous at Burlington, Iowa City, 
Davenport, Keokuk and Dubuque. " This," said the Governor 
shortly afterward to some complainers, " is what your state au- 
thorities have done without money to do it with," for the bonds 
were still unsold. Again Gov. Kirkwood made a vain struggle to 
find a market for the state securities, so as to have money to pay 
the debts and to buy arms for those who were defending our 
western line from the Indians, for by that time the Indians had 
been instigated to border disturbances. Tired of trying to push 
the bonds in other markets, he made an appeal to the people of 
Iowa to step forward and relieve the state by buying them 
themselves. On the very day of the battle of Bull Run he was 
writing to Col. John Edwards, to urge the people of his part of 
the state to buy as many bonds as their means would allow, 
and so relieve the difficulty. The bonds offered were of the 
$800,000 authorized by the Legislature, bore seven per cent in- 
terest, and were good; but men seemed more ready to offer their 
lives to the service of the state, than to lend money. Hence, the 
embarassment continued, relieved only by the quick acceptance 
of the Iowa troops on the part of the General Government, and 
its assumption of expenses. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE WAR GOVERNOR— MUSTERING FOR THE CONFLICT— 
Continued. 

It was shortly after the Bull Run days, July 25th, that an 
appointment was made in Iowa that was to reflect houor on the 
State, aud to be of immense bearing on the interests and the 
happiness of Iowa volunteers. It was Gov. Kirkwood's 
appointment of Nathaniel B. Baker to the position of Adjutant 
General of the State. Like Kirkwood, General Baker seemed 
born for the important place he was about to fill; and his patri- 
otism, and the importance of his career were scarcely second to 
that of the Governor himself. Adjutant General Bo wen had 
resigned, with the thanks of the Executive for his patriotism, 
zeal and ability. 

From the hour of Baker's entrance to the office till the day of 
his death, long years afterward, every pulsation of his heart was 
in unison with the interests of the soldiers of the state. Of 
his wonderful executive ability, his zeal, his patience, his love of 
the Iowa soldiers, his fitness for the place, too much could not 
be written, and his history becomes linked with that of the War 
Governor and the Iowa soldiers from that day forth. His watch- 
fulness for every single interest of the Iowa men in the war 
became proverbial. He called the Iowa soldiers his " boys, 1 ' and 
no sacrifice of his own, of time, of labor, or thoughtful inge- 
nuity to make their welfare better, was ever spared. What a 
blessing it was for the men of Iowa in the field, that just such 
a man, with such a heart, had charge of their interests at home. 
While the soldiers were in rendezvous, and, to a large extent 
while at the front, his vigilance seemed endless for their welfare. 
Many a field officer has been quickly led to repeal some arbitrary 
rule affecting, unjustly, some Iowa regiment or soldier. Many a 
military martinet, mistreating some volunteer, has felt the quick, 
hot anger of General Baker. Many an Iowa officer, forgetting 
that among Iowa troops a private soldier was as good as an oflfi- 

(56) 



THE "WAR GOVERNOR. 57 

cer, has been forced by General Baker to drop his arrogance, 
born of his petty authority, and to treat his soldiers like men 
and patriots. Many a field general has quaked at the red hot 
words, the prompt demand for justice to Bakers " boys, 1 ' tele- 
graphed whenever an injustice or a wrong was heard of. Hun- 
dreds of letters on file show that the War Department itself 
was more than once forced to alter the course of the Department, 
or of its officers in the field, toward Iowa soldiers. 

Baker was a hater of wrong and of injustice, and immeasurably 
more so if exercised toward an Iowa soldier. Thousands of 
these soldiers he knew personally, followed them with his heart to 
the field of battle, cheered them in distress or defeat, applauded 
them in victory, and, in a hundred directions, strove to alleviate 
the wants of the loved ones they had left behind. The sous and 
daughters of the veterans of that war can scarcely realize what 
a friend their fathers had in him who mustered and sent them 
forth to the field of battle. His zeal for the soldiers' interests 
was so great, his heart so warm for them and their cause, his 
ability for the duties of the post he filled so immense, no failure 
followed any efforts of his, made for the well-being of an Iowa 
volunteer. He succeeded always in what he undertook. In the 
regiments, in the army, in the departments at Washington — 
everywhere, he was considered the ideal of an Adjutant General; 
and his business methods and his office were by the War Depart- 
ment itself, pronounced about the most thorough and complete 
of any managed during that four years 1 war in the United States. 

He was not a tyro in executive affairs, when the war broke 
out. He had been a man of experience. As a boy of seventeen, 
he had entered Harvard College, in his native State, and gradu- 
ated with honor. He had studied law in the office of Franklin 
Pierce, afterward President of the United States. He had been 
a successful journalist, a Clerk of the Courts, a Representative 
in the Legislature, and twice Speaker of the House, by the time 
he was thirty-three years of age. Before another four years he 
was Governor of the state of New Hampshire; and a mere polit- 
ical accident, or rather a feeling of high honor, prevented his 
securing the democratic nomination for President of the United 



58 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

States. The Presidency, it was decided, should go to New 
Hampshire. In a state nominating caucus, the ballots were 
almost a tie between him and Pierce. Baker held the deciding 
vote, and cast it against himself. This was the man whom good 
fortune gave to Iowa to fill her second most important post in 
the days of peril. No soldier in Iowa ever doubted how well 
that post was tilled. His strong hand was shown in every Iowa 
event connected with the war. The military generals com- 
manded the Iowa soldiers at the front. Gov. Kirkwood 
and Gen. Baker held the reserves — supplied the front, and 
made Iowa's success and honor in the war a possibility. 

Baker resolved to have, as far as possible, only fit men in the 
Iowa regiments — men good and brave, as well as patriotic. 
About his first telegram to the Secretary of War was a tender 
of the Second Iowa cavalry. " Do you officer this regiment?" 
he telegraphed, " If so, send us good rneu." The request was 
complied with, for some of the gallant Second cavalry became 
distinguished officers, and three of them left the army with 
stars on their shoulders. 

Baker watched even the smallest details concerning Iowa 
troops going to the front. A Mississippi steamboat company 
carrying soldiers under contract, wished also to take on freight. 
"Yes," telegraphed Baker, "take the freight on if you wish to, 
but if you do, you take no Iowa soldiers. 1 ' 

It was the middle of July, 1861, before the military men of 
the North seemed to be commencing the war in earnest. The 
authorities had been driven and stung by patriotic clamor of 
press and people to "do something." There had been little 
engagements with varying results, in West Virginia, at Romney, 
Fairfax Court House, Falling Waters, Laurel Hill, Carrick's 
Ford and other points; and slight encounters at Booneville, 
Fulton and Carthage, Missouri; but none of these would have 
been called battles a year later. Not battles, and yet such 
encounters made history in the days of the Revolution. In the 
cival war they were swallowed up in the greater events to follow. 
Then came Bull Run. Iowa had not a single soldier in the 
battle. In two days, Baker stepped into the Adjutant General's 



THE WAB GOVERNOR. 59 

office, and the war tocsin sounded louder and louder over every 
prairie, farni and hillside in the state. What if Bull Run were 
a disaster? Even disaster was better than the humiliating, cow- 
ardly attitude the Government had been so long pursuing. Its 
hands had been tied; there was no alternative, no policy.* 
Now, it was going to fight. Talk of compromise was ended, and 
the battle brought ten times as many volunteers to the front as 
had been lost in the defeat. 

Baker's first official letter but one was to Col. Add. Sanders, 
directing him to hurry together the companies then forming in 
the river counties near Davenport — to consolidate and organize 
them at once, to meet the President's new call for 300,000 men. 
At the same time, Wm. B. Allison, then an aide on the staff of 
Gov. Kirkwood, was ordered by Baker to organize and accept 
companies as rapidly as possible in all the counties north of 
Dubuque. The Hon. Caleb Baldwin was aiding loyally and 
energetically in a similar capacity in the counties along the 
Missouri river. 

Sanders's, Baldwin's and Allison's duties were important, and 
energetically performed. A little trouble was had by Mr. Alli- 
son in buying blankets with Iowa bonds, for use of the men so 
rapidly volunteering. There was no other money to buy with, 
but somehow the cold-blooded patriots of a part of the north part of 
the state declined to act. Possibly they were raising liberty poles 
at Ossian. Mr. Allison had very good backing, however. His 
chief, Adjt. Genl. Baker, sent him word to ask once more 
for blankets, and if not forthcoming, some troops would be sent 

*Dubuqtje. 
Friend Kirkwood : 

I think you should have no hesitancy in allowing your name to be used 
(for Governor) on our state ticket. I am satisfied no one will so well meet 
the public expectation as yourself, and we may need all the strength possi- 
ble this fall to carry the election, especially if the administration continues 
in its present do-nothing policy. The despatches for a few days past seem 
to indicate that our friends at Washington will do something to stem the 
tide of dissolution and save us, if not from ruin, from demoralization in the 
estimation of our own loyal people, and from absolute disgrace in the eyes 
of the civilized world. We must have a policy of some kind soon, or our 
party and our country will go down together. 

Sincerely, your friend, 

Wm. B. Allison. 



60 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

at once to that part of Iowa, and " the reason found out. 1 ' The 
blankets were soon bought now, in abundance. 

By the end of July, 1861, nine Iowa regiments, infantry and 
cavalry, were either in the field, or in rendezvous ready for 
going. Many of the companies had been mustered in as early 
as May, and, indeed, the time of the First infantry regiment of 
i " three-months " men was about expired — its brave men want- 
ing to have a good bout with the enemy in Missouri, before com- 
ing home to disband and enter other regiments. The Second 
and Third regiments were also marching up and down Missouri, 
skirmishing with the Rebels as often as they could overtake 
them. The Second regiment had, in fact, been the first to leave 
the state for the seat of war, though the First left Keokuk and 
followed to Missouri on the very next day, June 13, 1861, and 
the Third started from Iowa on the 29th of the same month. 
Col. John F. Bates commanded the First regiment at this time, 
Hon. S. R. Curtis, member of Congress, the Second, and Nelson 
G. Williams, the Third. The Fourth, with Col. Dodge, although 
scarcely organized, was already chasing Rebels over the line, not 
far from Council Bluffs, while the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh reg- 
iments were drilling in Camp Warren, at Burlington. 

Spite of the new call, too many companies were offering. The 
Governor addressed the volunteers a circular, explaining how 
Iowa patriotism was overflowing, and begged the unaccepted 
companies to have patience and only wait. " This war, 11 he wrote 
to them on the 24th of June, " cannot be put down by passion 
or excitement, or unreasonable and blind haste, but by patience, 
calmness, organized preparation and cool, fierce determination. 
The man who to-day is at home waiting willingly, and prepared 
to march when ordered, is doing his duty to his country as well 
as he who, more fortunate, is already in the field. 11 Wilson's 
Creek had not yet been fought. Iowa patriotism had been tried, 
but not the heroism of her men. 

To Simon Cameron the Governor wrote on the 12th of June, 
tendering the Second regiment of cavalry. il Iowa is now ready 
with applications of companies for admission into the national 
service. Our people are loyal, patriotic and devoted. Their 



THE WAR GOVERNOR. 61 

hearts are with you. Their prayers daily ascend for the Presi- 
dent, the Cabinet and glorious Gen. Scott. 1 ' 

Company by compan} 7 and regiment by regiment, the young 
men of the state left for the war. There was many a pathetic 
scene as they left their homes and went forth to encounter the 
perils of the battle field. Everywhere hearts were wrung and 
homes left desolate. This picture from the Burlington Hawk- 
eye. May 8th, 1861, is not more touching than scenes that occur- 
red every day all over the loyal state: 

u Yesterday morning, a little after 9 o'clock, the whistle of the 
Kate Cassel was heard as she neared our levee, and, at the tap of 
the drum, the ' Rifles' were ready, and issued from their armory, 
to give a last parade on the streets before they left. As the 
company passed along, they were lustily cheered. When they 
turned to the levee, the people hurried on before them, and some 
thousands must have occupied the spacious landing. A passage 
was opened, and amid deafening hurras, they marched to the 
water's edge and along the plank, every foot in time, every face 
sober, as if each was engaged in a struggle with his emotions, 
and wished to play the man. By order of the Captain, they 
drew up in double file on the hurricane deck, and as he led, gave 
cheer after cheer, which was taken up and answered by the 
thousands on the shore. The feeling was intense, and still 
repressed; but when silence was restored, and the band poured 
forth the thrilling notes of 'Home, Sweet Home,' emotions 
strong and hardly controlled before, could be restrained no 
longer. Sobs broke from men as well as women, and tears 
flowed freely, as the thought presented itself to each that per- 
haps these brave fellows would never again enjoy the endear- 
ments of l Home, Sweet Home.' May the arm of the Highest 
protect them, and in His shadow may they trust! And if they 
return, may it be as victors, to receive the laurels which respect 
and affection will weave. 

" So many of the men are young, and closely related to our 
citizens, that it was impossible to keep the ranks. The hand 
extended to one was seized by a dozen, and at last soldiers and 
citizens mingled in that brief, sad parting. We saw many a 



62 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

mother attempt to say ' good bye, 1 but the result was a burst- 
ing cry of anguish, and a bowed head upon the brave boy's 
shoulder. The scene was only terminated by the imperative 
signal to cast off. The men hurried on board, pressed by their 
enthusiastic friends, some of whom waded to the side of the 
boat, to shake the hand that love might clasp no more. 

" As the Kate Cassel moved off, cheer after cheer broke forth 
again, mingled with the cries of the wives and mothers. One 
poor creature who had looked long and sadly at the boat as she 
lay to at the landing, so soon as the ropes were cast off and the 
boat swung round to the stream, uttered the most piteous cries 
of 'Oh, my Charley, my child, my child !' But her voice was 
soon drowned by that of thousands round her who were giving 
their last adieus and blessings to those on board." 

What man or woman then in the state does not call up sim- 
ilar scenes that took place in Iowa in those days of the war- 
Who does not recall the little grass plot of his native town, and 
the line of brave boys standing there, mustered to say farewell 
to mother, father, sweet-heart and wife — while the village pastor 
reverently invoked God's blessing on their heads. 

Oh! the pain and the anguish. The fleeting years have left 
them unassuaged. That was the coin of heart blood, Iowa paid to 
preserve the Union. May that one be doubly cursed who now 
by act or word endangers the ark saved by sacrifice of the 
anguished hearts of women, and the life's blood of men. 

What the anguish of Iowa women was who saw their loved 
ones pass to the field of battle, and the prison pen, will never be 
realized; their tears are registered in heaven. The excite- 
ment and the glory that hung about the battle like a halo, as 
their dear ones rushed to their death, was not theirs; but the 
sorrow, and the pain, as they silently took their dead bodies and 
embalmed them with their tears. 



CHAPTER V. 

IOWA AT WILSON'S CREEK — THE STATE'S FIRST BATTLE. 

August 10, 1861. 

The time had come for Iowa soldiers to receive their baptism 
of fire. So far, no Iowa man had met a foeman in battle. 

Gen. Nathaniel Lyon had chased the rebel Gen. Jackson 
out of the little town of Booneville on the Missouri river, and 
had pursued him in a southwesterly direction almost across the 
turbulent, guerilla-tortured state of Missouri. Gen. Franz Sigel 
had been ordered to Rolla by rail, with directions to march and 
intercept the rebel Jackson, if possible, somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of Springfield, and crush him before reinforcements 
could reach him from the Ozark mountains. 

Gen. Sigel met Jackson at the village of Carthage and, 
after a most spirited engagement on the open prairie, was 
defeated and fell back to Springfield. Here, his column was 
joined to the command of Gen. Lyon, who, with his First Iowa 
boys, First Kansas, First Missouri, a couple of battalions of reg- 
ulars, and two regular batteries, had been pursuing Jackson 
across the state, in forced marches. 

Sigel's defeat at Carthage had made possible a junction with 
Jackson of some ten thousand Arkansas and Texas troops, 
under Generals Price, McCulloch and Pearce. 

Undaunted by the increased numbers of the enemy, Lyon 
hurried forward on the first of August and dispersed one of the 
detached columns of the enemy at Dug Springs, seventeen 
miles south of Springfield. 

Returning with his troops to Springfield, he paused to con-, 
sider the dangerous dilemma in which his army had been placed 
by Gen. Fremont's neglect to re-enforce him from the surplus 
troops at St. Louis and the four regiments or more camped at 
Rolla. The danger of the situation had of course been aggra- 
vated by the defeat of Gen. Sigel at Carthage. Gen. Fre- 

(63) 



64 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

mont's staff at St. Louis, possessed of more gilt epaulettes than 
military wisdom, seemed quite unconcerned as to the fate of the 
unsupported columns they had pushed into the interior of a 
state filled with secessionists and guerrillas and partially occupied 
by a large army. 

Possibly Gen. Fremont, so recently placed in command of the 
district, with headquarters at St. Louis, was not altogether 
responsible for the dangerous situation. Certainly he was a 
patriot, if not a tried general. But the troops about the city, 
or arriving, were only half organized, and very imperfectly 
armed. The city was a city of secessionists, spies, and rebel 
sympathizers. Chaos reigned, and army headquarters were sur- 
rounded and apparently controlled by a species of army robbers 
and cormorants who thought more of a fat contract than of 
Gen. Lyon's devoted little army. Lyon's repeated appeals for 
re-enforcements had been in vain. No help was even attempted. 
And yet there were in front of him, and preparing to overwhelm 
him, three different columns, numbering not less than twenty 
thousand troops. His own little army numbered, all told, sick 
and wounded included, but five thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-eight men. Rolla, the nearest point for help, was one 
hundred and fifty miles away. Should he retreat there at once, 
sacrificing without a blow the immense stores, and the specie piled 
together in Springfield, for what purpose, no one knew? Should 
he sacrifice the whole state of Missouri after driving the Rebels 
so far before him ? Or should he deliver battle, and by hard 
fight make at least retreat possible ? 

He trusted in the heroism and patriotism of his men. What 
if the time of service of the Iowa men had expired? One appeal 
to them and they were ready. It was not a question of time or 
pay with them, but country. 

" Will your First Iowa men stay and fight with me?" said 
Lyon to Lt.-Col. Merritt, in a private interview of the ninth of 
August. 

" Every man of them," replied Merritt. 

That very day the order for the battle was arranged. The 
doubting officers who feared the policy of attacking numbers so 



IOWA AT WILSONS CREEK. 



65 




BATTL.E OF WILSOK'S CBEEB. 



EXPLANATIONS. 



A. Captain Totten's Battery. 

B. Dubois' Battery, 

C. Log House, 
J), Cornfield. 

E, First Iowa Volunteers. 

F, Second Missouri Volunteers, 

G, Second Kansas Volunteers. 

H. First Kansas, First Missouri, and 
Captain Shaler's Battalion, 



I. Captain Plummer's Battalion. 
K. Rebel Batteries Masked. 
L. Colonel Sigel's Artillery. 

M. Sigel's Brigade. Third and Fifth Missouri, 

N. Fart of Rebel Train. 

O. Concealed Eebel Batteries. 

X. Koad through Kebel Camp. 

Y. McCulloch's Head-Quarters. 

Z. Rains' Head-Quarters. 



I. W. T.— 5 



66 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

overwhelming, yielded to the prompt spirit, the recognized cour- 
age, the positive character of their leader. It was but for Lyon 
to say the word, and every man in that little army became a 
hero. 

The united rebel army was on Wilson's Creek, but ten miles 
away. They looked upon Lyon's destruction or capture as but a 
question of hours. The order to attack him had already been 
given, but was countermanded, because of rain. Had it been 
carried out, the two armies would have met in the prairie, 
between Wilson's Creek and Springfield. Lyon determined to 
be ahead, and to surprise the Rebels that very night or by day- 
light of the morrow. He marched at sundown. 

Contrary to the original plan of Gen. Lyon, and contrary to 
the advice of many of the field officers, Gen. Sigel received 
permission to take his brigade of some two thousand men, 
mounted and unmounted, with six pieces of artillery, and march 
for the enemy's rear right flank by way of the road to Fayette- 
ville. This divided the union forces, already too small. Sigel 
alone was responsible for this mistake. Gen. Lyon was to march 
with the rest of the army, including the First Iowa, and attack 
the enemy directly in front. 

Quietly, and with muffled drums, the soldiers marched through 
the darkness. At midnight, Lyon's advance saw the fires of the 
enemy's pickets. The order to halt was given, and the soldiers 
stretched themselves on the wet prairie grass to sleep — to many, 
their last night's rest — and to dream of the combat of the 
morrow. 

The first streaks of dawn were ushered in with the rattle of 
musketry. Our lines were moving forward, driving the enemy's 
advance skirmishers before them. In an hour, the rising sun 
was greeted with the roar of Lyon's artillery. The first real 
battle, in the West, for the preservation of the Union, had 
begun, and the forces were as five to one against us. 

The First Missouri infantry was immediately pushed forward 
in line of battle on the crest of a small hill or elevated plateau. 
To its left, in line, stood the men of the First Kansas, fighting 
like hardened veterans, while the batteries of Totten and Dubois 



iowa at wilson's creek. 67 

hurled twelve shells a minute into the thick ranks of the enemy 
charging the union lines. 

For an hour the First Iowa stood in support of Dubois's bat- 
tery on the left, but early in the engagement it was hurried to 
the help of the First Kansas, now being overpowered by superior 
numbers. The regiment was under command of Lt.-Col. Mer- 
ritt, Col. Bates being incapacitated by illness. In this move 
forward, two companies of the regiment were separated from 
the command by the retreat of troops breaking through their 
ranks. Two other companies had been left with Dubois's bat- 
tery, and the remaining six, led by Lt.-Col. Merritt, now entered 
a storm of battle that lasted for five hours. 

The main force of the Rebels occupied the broad valley of the 
stream, and still others a ridge beyond, running at right angles 
to the union line of battle. From this ridge and valley poured 
the masses of troops that charged and re-charged the union lines, 
hoping by sheer force of numbers to overwhelm and drive back 
flanks and center. It mattered little that the ground was strewn 
with their dead — ten times they charged that forenoon, and ten 
times they were driven back from the position held by the Iowa 
and Kansas soldiers and the two batteries. 

Further to the left, CapL Plummer, of the First regulars, 
with a bare handful of men, two hundred and fifty in number, 
contested hotly for two hours with a force five times as strong as 
his own. To right and left and front, the Iowa and Kansas regi- 
ments, the men of Missouri and the trained regulars contended 
desperately with masses of fresh troops hurled upon them after 
every defeated charge. 

Sigel's column, at the rear of the enemy, had been ignomini- 
ously defeated early in the morning. His guns were captured, 
his troops scattered, and he himself in flight for Springfield. 
Unknown to Lyon, Sigel had ceased to be a factor in the contest. 

Gen. Lyon was everywhere along his own line, fearless but 
calm. ,l Where is Sigel? Why does not Sigel come? " was only 
answered by the shells of Sigel's captured cannon screaming 
into the union ranks. Everywhere there was death. Officer 
after officer fell, the ranks were growing thinner, and not once 



68 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

was the word retreat even thought of. At nine o'clock, brave 
Lyon fell, a bullet through his heart just as he was urging a 
terrific counter charge. Twice before, during the combat, he 
had received the enemy's bullets in his body, and given no sign of 
yielding. 

The fight went on. Still the Rebels charged, and still were 
driven back. Then came a lull of battle. There was a hurried 
consultation of officers on the union line. The gallant Maj. 
Sturgis had assumed control, and it was now a question if retreat 
were not only honorable, but imperative. For fifteen hours the 
union soldiers had not tasted a drop of water. 

That moment a force of infantry bearing the American flag 
was seen coming down the hill from the direction where Sigel 
should have been. Was it help at last? Sigel's utter rout was 
not suspected. Could this be he? Closer and closer the column 
came, and then showing its true colors, it fired a blast of mus- 
ketry in the very faces of the silent, waiting union line. Then 
commenced again an encounter more deadly than at any hour 
of the day. The batteries, the regulars, the First Missourians, 
the First Iowans and the Kansas regiments, hurled into the 
rebel lines a most terrific fire. There was no retreat now — only 
death seemed possible. Fear vanished, and desperation seized 
on every soldier present, till at last, routed and driven, the 
enemy abandoned the field. There was a time of silence. The 
union army, what was left alive of it, gathered up its wounded, 
and, perfectly unmolested, retired to Springfield. Every man 
in its ranks had been a hero. 

It was twelve o'clock when the union lines retired, and not till 
three days afterward, when they had fallen back to Rolla, did 
the crippled rebel hosts dare to come in and occupy the abandoned 
town. As our troops fell back from the battle field, tired, parched 
with the hot August sun, wounded and bleeding, they stopped on 
the way, greeted each other and sang a song of the Union. 

That night, while the soldiers slept upon their arms in 
Springfield, a melancholy scene was passing at the headquarters 
of the commanding officer. It was a council to decide as to 
what they should next do. On a table beside them, draped 



iowa at Wilson's creek. 69 

in a military blanket, lay the bleeding body of Gen. Lyon. It 
was a scene for a tragic artist. When killed in the field, the 
body had been placed on an ambulance, but on returning, 
some soldiers gathering up the wounded, not recognizing 
the body of their dead commander, threw it to the ground, 
and filled the ambulance with the living. Missing it, on 
reaching Springfield, the officers sent an escort for it back 
to the battle-field. It was delivered to them by the enemy, and 
now, like the dead body of Hector, lay calm in death, while the 
comrades of the morning stood wondering what next to do when 
such a man was dead. The body was buried that night in the 
private yard of Mrs. ex-Gov. Phelps, a union citizen of the 
town. 

Long before day-light, the little army, unpursued, was on its 
way to Rolla, carrying with it in perfect safety an enormous 
wagon train with stores and specie. 

Shortly, the First Iowa, the first heroic defenders of the state, 
the heroes of Wilson's Creek, went home and were mustered 
out. In the battle they had lost 160 men, nearly twenty of 
whom were killed, and all the remainder, wounded. The 
terribleness of the battle was shown by the list of casualties. 
Out of about 5,000 men engaged, the Union army lost 1,235, 
without counting but a corporal's guard of Sigel's men. 

The Rebel loss equaled 3,000 men. "Probably no two forces 
ever fought with greater desperation," says the rebel commander, 
writing to his chief at Richmond. The rebel loss in officers was 
very great. Generals, colonels, and other field officers, led their 
commands in person, and fell in the midst of charges. The 
rebel Col. Clark's little battalion of 200 men had eighty-eight 
of them killed and wounded. Col. Hughes, with only 650 men 
had 112 killed or wounded and thirty missing. Cawthorne's 
brigade of 1,200 men lost ninety-six in dead and wounded. Of 
5,221 Missourians engaged on the rebel side, 673 were left on the 
field wounded or dead. 

The First Missouri regiment on the union side lost 295 men 
and the First Kansas infantry, 284. 

There was a moment in the battle when less than 3,000 men 



70 IOWA ES T WAR TIMES. 

were resisting the attack of the whole rebel army, and there was 
a time when, for the First Iowa to have faltered five mirutes, 
would have lost the daj\ 

All the soldiers in the union army recognized the supreme 
heroism of the First Iowa. The state and general government 
rivaled each other in honoring the regiment. Lt.-Col. Merritt, 
Maj. Potter and Capt. Herron were complimented in general 
orders, and almost hundreds of the regiment received later com- 
missions in other commands. The President of the United States 
ordered a special proclamation of thanks for the heroism of the 
men at Wilson's Creek to be read before every regiment in the 
service. 

" Remember Wilson's Creek! Remember the deeds of the First 
Iowa! " wrote Gov. Kirkwood to almost every Iowa regiment in 
the service. And they were remembered. In the four long, bloody 
years, no Iowa soldier who fought, but remembered and emulated 
his comrades, who fought in the first battle of the West. 

Six hundred of that gallant band, on being mustered out, 
re-entered the service in other regiments. Many who served 
in the line or carried muskets on that day of Wilson's Creek, 
achieved high rank and military distinction. Five of them 
became colonels; five became brigadier generals, and three who 
were captains in the line, became full major generals. 

The day was an epoch in the history of a state. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AFFAIRS IN IOWA. 

The news of the battle of Wilson's Creek produced a great 
sensation in Iowa. The question as to whether Iowa men could 
be heroes, was settled; but there was mourning in many homes. 

Shortly, the survivors of the First regiment came marching 
back to the state, and with an ardor and patriotism as great as 
when they were mustered in. Their tales of real battle — their 
reception as heroes — their unabated loyalty, soon led other 
thousands to volunteer. As for themselves, scores of them re- 
ceived commissions in other regiments, then forming. 

As an organization, the First regiment passed from history. 
Gov. Kirkwood declined to allow its reorganization — its glory 
was too great to risk on the chance of new recruits. Its time 
was out — its history was written in blood. 

Gov. Kirkwood was in Washington City asking for arms to 
defend Iowa's border, when the news of the battle in which her 
soldiers had so signalized themselves, reached there. "That day 
in Washington, it was an honor to be an Iowa man," said the 
Governor in a speech at Des Moines, afterward. " I tell you, my 
friends, that was a proud day for Iowa in Washington. It was 
glory enough for any man there to hail from Iowa." " The 
First — the glorious First," became a common phrase in execu- 
tive dispatches to other regiments, in those days. Iowa's first 
honors were fairly won. 

Before going to Washington, early in August, the Governor 
had been besieged by companies all over the state for arms — 
especially by companies on the threatened southern border. 
And still there were neither arms nor money. Col. Dodge's 
regiment in camp at Council Bluffs was even without shoes, 
and not a penny in the treasury. Col. John Edwards, then an 

(71) 



72 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

aide of the Governor on the southern border of the state, had 
called troops into the state service to defend it against Rebels 
daily threatening the peace of the border. They, too, were with- 
out arms and supplies, while still other state troops in the north- 
west border, watching the Indians, were but half armed. 

"What can be done?" the Governor wrote Col. Edwards, August 
3d. " I have not a dollar to pay even expressage on arms, if I 
had them. Can't the people in your vicinity buy some of our 
state bonds, and thus furnish means to get arms? My contract 
for rifles and revolvers failed, because 1 had no money to pay for 
them. Unless I can get some, I don't know what I shall do. 
Your people will have to furnish supplies to the camp on credit 
of the state, and wait for their pay, as must the men of the reg- 
iment. Let the soldiers know fully how the matter stands — 
that the money is not at hand, and can't be had until bonds are 
sold. Our people must buy the bonds of the state. What can 
be done? I go to Washington on Monday, to try to get arms, and 
make arrangements for the peace of our border. You can get 
powder at Keokuk, and perhaps lead, on credit." 

This financial difficulty, so hard for our soldiers and the state, 
was caused principally by the unpatriotic, if not treasonable 
conduct of the Mahoney wing of the democratic party — a class 
of men who decried the war, discouraged enlistments, and by 
false representations as to the war loan, injured the credit of the 
state. Men were afraid to buy bonds pronounced by agitators 
in the state Assembly and by certain newspapers, as unconstitu- 
tional. Confidence in the state's ever paying these bonds was 
lost, and the secession sympathizers in the state were to blame 
for it, as they were for the blood of many an Iowa patriot. 

All through the autumn months, the organization of compa- 
nies and regiments for the war went on in Iowa. The Adjutant 
General's office was the busiest office in the state. Its corres- 
pondence, to this day recorded and kept, was immense. Much 
of the labor was caused by the total inexperience and ignorance 
of regimental and field officers. The art of the business part of 
war was naturally not understood by many of the mere political 
hacks who had wired themselves into the confidence of the 




COLONEL W. H. MERRITT. 



AFFAIRS IN IOWA. 73 

Governor, and secured commissions they were not fitted to hold. 
Of the art of war proper — of commanding troops — of tactics — 
of maneuvers — of discipline — of even the subsistence of soldiers, 
these gentlemen too frequently knew little or nothing. The 
real patriotism, too, of the state, like its heroic courage, was of- 
tenest in the ranks of the common soldier. The privates had 
volunteered out of pure patriotism, not to get commissions and 
glory. Mistakes as to military appointments were made by the 
Governor constantly. It could not be otherwise. Usually the 
field officers of a regiment were appointed by him on the recom- 
mendation of some prominent man or men acquainted with the 
applicant, but who could give little further guarantee than 
that he wanted the office very badly. Many of these unfit officers, 
by bitter experience learned their trade of war, and at last won 
deserved promotion. A few were promoted as the war proceeded, 
spite of continued unfitness. Some were gradually dismissed 
the service, and very many were compelled to resign the com- 
missions they had only disgraced. 

The evils came of a bad system, in the first instance, of com- 
missioning men whose only prominence was in local politics, — 
and in permitting companies and line officers to elect their fav- 
orites to commands just as they elected men at home to the Leg- 
islature or Congress, regardless of special fitness. The system 
was very democratic, but pernicious and unheard of in military 
selections. 

The Governor required a certificate as to the sober habits of all 
officers elected — but spite of this, drunkenness was not less 
common among officers than was incompetency. Still, as a 
rule, drunken officers also fell out of the service long before the 
war ended. The list of Iowa officers suspended, dismissed, re- 
signed, or forced to go home, is discreditable. 

Some of these dismissed officers were wrongly charged, or 
put out of the service for infractions of petty orders that in 
common sense were not applicable to volunteers. Many thus 
dismissed for trivial offenses or for unintended violation of any 
regulations, were restored to position; but when so, it was always 
a result of the most zealous urging and demanding on the 
r 



74 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

part of Gen. Baker and the Governor, whose constant struggle 
was to keep Iowa's honor bright in the war days. 

Numerous officers who came home with leaves of gold or sil- 
ver, or eagles on their shoulders, had it not been for the enor- 
mous zeal of Baker in their behalf, would have had " dismissed 
and unworthy" written against them on the record. 

Though absolute disloyalty could seldom be charged to an 
Iowa officer, the actions of some of them not infrequently led 
their men to conclude that the rights of traitors were occasion- 
ally held in higher esteem than the rights of private soldiers in 
the union ranks. Putting loyal soldiers on guard over rebel 
property was not an uncommon thing, nor the punishment of 
loyal volunteers for the least infringement of petty rules pro- 
tecting Rebels against the taking of their forage or food by 
union soldiers. Officers guilty of such friendliness for Rebels 
became extremely unpopular with their regiments, and lost repu- 
tation at home. As for Gov. Kirkwood, he would not bear that 
Iowa officers should so mistake their duties, and fiercer letters 

than the one sent to Col. * served to bring certain 

commanders to a realization of what the terms loyalty and pat- 
riotism really meant. 

The following letter to another Iowa officer of whom com- 
plaints had been made, hints at what many of the boys in blue 
were being used for in Missouri in 1861-2: 

" Our volunteer soldiers have not any very high regard for men 
of known secession antecedents or sympathies. They do and will 
make a distinction between men who are loyal and men who are 

*ToCol. 

Sir: Your recent letter reminds me of a matter that justice to you re- 
quires I shall mention. Rumors have spread widely through this state, 
prejudicial to your loyalty. It is said freely that in Missouri, you prefer for 
associates, men of known secession proclivities — that at one or more places, 
you have been refused admission to Union clubs for this reason; that upon 
one occasion when your regiment was on dress parade, a knot of persons 
hurrahed for Jeff Davis; that after the regiment was dismissed, you went 
up to this knot of men, asked an acquaintance among them how he liked your 
regiment; that he replied, " very well, but not the flag it marched under " — 
that he would "much like to see it under the Confederate flag;" that the 
only notice you took of this, was to laugh, take the speaker by the arm, and 
go off and take tea with him. 1 think it but just that I give you this in- 
formation, and say that these rumors are seriously affecting your reputation. 
Respectfully Yours, S. J. Kirkwood. 



AFFAIRS IN IOWA. 4 

disloyal in the treatment both of officers and property, and I 
confess I participate in that feeling, so long as the persons 
and property of union men are outraged and plundered by 
rebel troops, as they have been, and are; so long as the princi- 
pal occupation of union troops continues to be the guarding 
and protecting of the persons and property of Rebels, as it has 

been, so long will there be dissatisfaction among our soldiers. 

* * * * * ****** * 

" 1 think it would be well to try a more stringent mode of 
treatment with Rebels and their sympathizers. We have been 
pelting them in the secession tree with good words and grass for 
a long time, and they ivont come down. I think the time has 
fully come to use stones." 

Some of the most scheming and incompetent officers enlisted 
as privates in the early war days, and went into the ranks only 
on the distinct understanding that they should shortly be eleva- 
ted to some office in the regiment. Others, later, moved the politi- 
cal heavens of the whole state to secure commissions that might 
have a reflex advantage to them whenever they should get ready 
to resign, come home, and run for office. Most of these trick- 
sters received their just deserts at last, and the Iowa soldiers 
Avere soon, as a rule, left to the command of sober, honest, patri- 
otic and heroic men. 

Bad appointments, and disappointments of those not ap- 
pointed at all, and heart-aches of those ambitious to wear epau- 
lettes, caused the Governor extreme annoyance in the early days 
of the war, and were the means used in a vain effort to defeat him 
for re-election. 

His difficulties and embarrassments inside his own party»at 
this time were constant. Only great good sense could carry 
him safely between the Scylla of ultra Abolitionism on the one 
hand, and the Charybdis of too much conservatism on the other. 
" Firm ground must be taken right now," wrote a prominent 
abolitionist adviser. " Better no union at all, than any more 
kneeling to slavery/ 1 "Our republican party was on the road 
to ruin/' wrote a different adviser. " Your re-nomination has 
saved it. (That was in August, 1861.) The effort that is being 



76 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

made to abolitionize it into a Wendell Phillips party has 
already weakened it to that degree that we already see this 
state ' Union party ' in the field. But. your manly and patri- 
otic course under difficulties that perhaps no other Governor 
ever experienced — being at home without money, and abroad 
without credit — all admit to be noble. Evervw here I hear but one 
voice, k Let Kirkwood carry us through the war/ What a calamity 
would have befallen us had Williams been nominated — an out and 
out Abolitionist who believes the Constitution to be a l covenant 
with hell' — who has never been a republican; I frankly believe 
2,000 votes in this district would have wheeled off from our ticket 
in disgust. We have a newspaper here that started out as repub- 
lican; but it has run off into abolitionism and free love. The 
editor and Williams are determined that the republicans here 
shall become followers of Fred Douglass and Lucy Stone, or be 
broken up. But your re-nomination is a God-send that may 
save us." 




CHAPTER VII. 

THE BATTLE OF BLUE MILLS. 

Sept. 17, 1861. 

While the rapid organization of new regiments was being 
pushed forward in Iowa that autumn, the earlier regiments were 
making endless marches up and down the distracted and rebel- 
beridden state of Missouri — chasing murderers, assassins and 
guerrillas. It was a peculiar kind of warfare, seldom resulting 
in any substantial gain to the army. Light bands of Rebels rode 
over the country, killing and destroying unarmed " Unionists," 
before a regular force could overtake and punish them. Other 
bands of secessionists, engaged in the same assassinations — the 
same destruction of union men's property, would suddenl} r dis- 
band, go to their homes and apparently be engaged in the most 
peaceful avocations on the approach of a body of federal troops. 
House burning, murder and private vengeance of neighbor- 
hood upon neighborhood became the order of the day in the 
unhappy state that now experienced all the horrors of civil war 
in its most aggravated form. No man's life was safe an hour, 
and property had no value. None, save the Unionists of Ten- 
nessee, suffered during the great war, as did the unhappy people 
of Missouri. 

Here and there, small bodies of union and secession troops 
would meet and fight a real battle, almost as if by accident. 
Such a combat was the affair at Blue Mills, on the 17th of Sep- 
tember, 1861. The engagement brought no special honor to 
Iowa soldiers, though it was fought by the Third Iowa with 
determination and spirit. Lt.-Col. Scott led 500 men of that 
regiment with a few Missouri home guards into an ambush that 
might have resulted in the massacre of the whole command. 
Once in, however, Scott and his men and officers fought gal- 

(77) 



78 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

lantly, until by overpowering numbers they were driven from the 
field in confusion. 

Blue Mills is only a ferry point on the Missouri river, not 
very far from St. Joseph. About the time of the capture of 
Lexington by Price, Scott with his Third regiment was ordered 
to march from Cameron to the town of Libertv, and there meet 
another column — the two to co-operate against a force of Rebels 
then retreating from St. Joseph and trying to reach Lexington. 
Scott's force reached Liberty on the morning of the 17th of Sep- 
tember, but the co-operating force had not arrived. Scott waited 
only till noon, and then, misled by reports of citizens, and 
becoming impatient to prevent further forces reaching the Rebels 
at Lexington, pushed on without the re-enforcements into the 
dense woods and dry sloughs bordering the river at Blue Mills. 

His advance was shortly surprised, and, with four men killed, 
driven back by a large force of the enemy. Scott had sent a 
courier to hurry up the re-enforcements — but without waiting 
news of them, committed the fatal mistake of marching his col- 
umn straight on into the enemy's ambush. He had not even 
formed a line of battle, but marched in column by flank, and in 
a short time was surprised and overwhelmed. No line of battle 
was formed during the whole combat, which lasted for an hour. 
The confusion and surprise made it impossible. Four thousand 
Rebels poured a hot fire from front and flank on the devoted little 
band. Its one cannon was soon useless. Ten out of sixteen of 
its commissioned officers were already shot. There was nothing 
to do but to retreat, though every man and officer had fought in 
a manner worthy of veterans — each as a rule fighting for him- 
self. Discipline or order there was none — the fight became 
almost a rout. 

On falling back to Liberty they met the re-enforcements that 
might, with more caution, have made a victory instead of defeat. 
The engagement was improperly brought on, the men burning 
to obliterate the memory of the retreat from Shelbina a few days 
previously, for which Col. Williams alone had been responsible. 
The fight at Blue Mills lasted a full hour, Col. Scott bravely 
doing his utmost to avoid defeat. Among the severely wounded 



THE BATTLE OF BLUE MILLS. 79 

were Major Stoue, afterwards Colonel of the Twenty-second 
Iowa, and later Governor of the state; Captains Warren,* Wil- 
let and O'Niel, and Lieutenants Hobbs, Anderson and Knight. 
John F. Lacey, afterwards Steele's Assistant Adjutant General, 
was captured. Sergt. James H. Lakin received special men- 
tion for his gallantry in saving the colors, as well as Capt. 
Trumbull, Lieut. Crosley and Abernethy, the Sergeant, who, 
with a few brave men, pulled the cannon away by hand. Seventy 
of the Federals were wounded, some of them mortally, and nine 
killed, according to Col. Scott. Company I lost four killed and 
twenty wounded in the action.f The result of the fight stimu- 
lated and encouraged the Rebels in Missouri. It was the Third 
regiment's first battle — and most unfortunate, save for the gal- 
lantry displayed in presence of overpowering numbers* 

"It was undertaken," says Lieut. Thompson of the Third reg- 
iment, and a participant, "through a lofty sense of honor, and a 
loftier sense of duty, against eight times our number — begin- 
ning in mistake — sustained with desperation — ending in retreat." 

Other Iowa regiments were marching up and down Missouri 
under Gen. Pope in those September days of 1861; but they 
rarely came in fighting contact with the rebel General PricO; 
whose predilection seemed more for running than for fighting.' 
Misfortunes to our arms had occurred in Missouri beyond a doubt. 
Wilson's Creek was a drawn battle, and our leader was killed. 
Lexington, with thousands of good soldiers, was taken from us. 
Blue Mills was a defeat, if not a rout, and Gen. Fremont re- 
ceived the blame for the whole. His forces had been large, but 
they were of necessity greatly scattered, and calls on him for 
help came from every direction at the most critical times. The 
General's own weakness seemed to be a want of quick conclu- 
sions and of proper concentration of his armies. Unfortunately 
for him, too, he was surrounded by sharks and sharpers, swin- 

*Capt. Warren, wounded at Blue Mills, was one of Mahaska's loyal Dem- 
ocrats and a man of few words. When the war broke out he, with others, 
was called on for a speech at a public meeting. Stepping forward he said 
simply and impressively, " Gentlemen, I am at my country's service " — and 
went. 

fThe rebel commander (D. R. Atchison) reported officially to Gen. Price 
that about sixty of the Federals were killed and about seventy wounded. 



80 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

dling contractors and evil advisers. Personally, he way a great 
patriot and a meritorious soldier. He was possessed of the love 
of his soldiers, and the confidence of his officers. But the press, 
and the outsiders, and the jealous aspirants — all wished him 
killed off. He was too advanced, too, in his measures against 
slaves in rebel hands. He was blamed for every disaster in the 
state of Missouri, and his ruin determined on. 

Gov. Kirkwood, like most men in Iowa, protested loudly 
against Fremont's proposed removal. Fremont himself, seeing 
the public dissatisfaction, resolved to take the field personally 
and lead his forces to battle wherever Price's army might be 
overtaken. Gladly the Iowa boys fell in with a grand hurrah 
for their leader, and on half rations made long marches, passed 
sleepless nights, and followed the rebel army to Springfield. 
Then, just as pursuit was successful, and bright victory within 
their grasp, Fremont, their le^.er, was removed. 

The result was little short of mutiny. Nothing buh patriot- 
ism, and duty, and discipline, made Fremont's soldiers relinquish 
the rebel chase, and with disapointed hopes march back with 
banners drooping over the long, weary roads across the state. 
It seemed as if Missouri were given up forever. 

When Thanksgiving day came, that 28th of November, it was 
almost a question as to what there was in Iowa to be thankful 
for. Yet the crops were good, business was better, and pros- 
perity had revived, spite of the horrors of war near her doors. 
Before the snow fell in 1861, Iowa had twenty thousand men 
armed for the conflict, and one of her regiments was winning 
new honors at the battle of Belmont. 



'CHAPTER VIH. 

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT— GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE. 
Nov. 7, 1861. 

The 1st of November, 1861, found about twenty thousand 
union troops in and about the town of Cairo, and under com- 
mand of U. S. Grant, one of the very new brigadier generals. 
Cairo was in itself a most important point, controlling the con- 
fluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, while only twenty 
miles below, on the Mississippi, were the strong rebel fortifica- 
tions of Columbus, with good commanders and fully as many 
troops as the Federals had at Cairo. 

After Gen. Fremont had taken charge of his army in person, 
reports reached him that the Rebels were proposing to re-enforce 
Price, then in his front, by forces from Columbus. To prevent 
such a move, orders were sent from St. Louis to Gen. Grant, on 
the 5th of November, to menace, but not attack the Rebels at Co- 
lumbus. Exactly similar orders were sent to Gen. C. F. Smith, 
of good fame, who commanded a force at Paducah, at the mouth 
of the Tennessee river. Both of these officers had orders to 
bring on no action, but to deceive the enemy in Columbus by 
co-operation and demonstrations. 

On the night of the 6th, Gen. Grant in person placed two brig- 
ades of troops, some 3,000 in all, on four transports, and started 
down the Mississippi, anchoring for the night at a point on the 
Kentucky side, six miles above Columbus. The gunboats Tyler 
and Lexington accompanied the steamers as convoy. Gen. Smith 
at the same time sent some 2,000 men out from Paducah under 
Gen. Paine, to demonstrate against Columbus from the rear. 

" I had," says General Grant, " no orders which contemplated 

an attack by the national troops, nor did I intend anything of 

the kind when I started from Cairo." However, there was a 

little encampment of Rebels — a regiment and a battery, just 

I. W. T.— 6 (81) 



82 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

across the river from Columbus, in full sight of the towu, and 
under protection of its heavy guns. This camp was 3elmont. 
At two o'clock that night, it occurred to Gen. Grant that he 
could capture that camp, and his resolution to try the adventure 
was hastened by a report that the Rebels were sending troops 
across the river to Belmont right then, with a view, as he 
thought, of pursuing and capturing a federal column recently 
sent out from Cairo. In that he was deceived. No rebel troops 
were crossing, but a message from Jeff. Thompson had arrived 
in Columbus at that very hour in the night, telling of Grant's 
force having left Cairo. The Rebels were now alarmed, for 
Smith's movement had also been detected. As a demonstration, 
the movement had been a success, and Grant might now have 
returned to Cairo, his orders fulfilled. But his volunteer soldiers 
wanted a fight. 

"I did not see," says Gen. Grant, in his memoirs, "how I 
could maintain discipline, or retain the confidence of my com- 
mand, if we should return to Cairo without an effort to do some- 
thing." As on certain other and later occasions, notably at 
Vicksburg, Gen. Grant yielded his judgment to the clamor of 
the men for a fight. 

Among the regiments on the steamers burning for a fight that 
night, was the Seventh Iowa, commanded by Col. Lauman, with 
Augustus Wentz (one of the captains who had distinguished 
themselves at Wilson's Creek), as Lieut.-Colonel, and Elliott W. 
Rice as Major. The Seventh had never seen a battle, but its 
men had received more drill and discipline than the average 
Iowa volunteer regiments. They were brigaded with the Twenty- 
second Illinois, Lt.-Col. Hart commanding; Col. Dougherty of 
the Twenty-second being in charge of the brigade. The re- 
mainder of the force, the Twenty-seventh, Thirtieth and Thirty- 
first Illinois, with two companies of cavalry, and a Chicago bat- 
tery, formed another brigade, under command of Gen. John A. 
McClernand. Col. John A. Logan, afterward so distinguished, 
commanded the Thirty-first Illinois. Gen. Grant had never yet 
commanded in a battle, and Col. Logan had never seen a fight. 
Over both these men, fame was hovering with wings outspread, 



THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. 83 

waiting events that should bring upon them the eyes of the 
nation. 

Just after cLylight of November the 7th, the steamboats 
crossed over the river to the Missouri side, and Gen. Grant's little 
force landed in the woods three miles above Belmont. Gen. 
Grant himself took two companies of the Seventh Iowa and 
three of the Twenty-second Illinois a short distance down the 
river bank, and placed them there under Capt. Detrich, as guards 
for the transports. The infantry now moved forward by flank 
through a cornfield and into heavy timber, when line of battle 
was formed with the Seventh Iowa and the Twenty-second Illi- 
nois on the left. Now was given the order to advance — and 
bring on the fight. 

The Rebels were prepared to meet them. At daylight that 
morning a second messenger had reached Gen. Polk, the rebel 
commander in Columbus, informing him of Grant's crossing the 
river and landing. Immediately, four regiments of Tennessee 
infantry under Gen. Pillow were ferried across the river to Bel- 
mont, and by the time Grant's line was advancing, a much larger 
force than his own stood in line of battle, behind felled trees, 
dense thickets, and heavy woods, to receive him. 

All this was unknown to the federal soldiers. After a forward 
movement of a quarter of a mile, they reached a broad dry slough, 
where a halt was made, and Captains Gardner and Kittredge and 
Lieut. DeHeuss, with their companies of the Seventh Iowa, were 
sent in advance as skirmishers. The other brigade, with its 
numerous force and battery, was slowly advancing on the right. 
In ten minutes the skirmishers were engaged, when Rawlins, the 
aide of Gen. Grant, came up and ordered Lauman, with the 
remainder of the Seventh. Iowa, to advance and engage the 
enemy. The order was obeyed on the double quick, and a fierce 
fight there among the dense woods and felled trees commenced, 
and continued for two hours and a half. The Rebels fought 
well, but were slowly and surely driven back on their encamp- 
ment at Belmont, from before all points of the union line. 
Owing to the brush and felled trees, the advance was slow, and 
the lines disordered, the soldiers climbing over and around the 



84 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

obstructions as best they could, continuing the fierce struggle by 
squads and companies. The right, under McClernand, had 
fought its way forward under the same difficulties, and during 
the whole advance the heavy guns at Columbus poured their 
shot through the timber above the heads of the combatants. 
The two gunboats were also engaging the batteries above 
Columbus. 

Before noon, the Rebels had been driven so far that the union 
forces saw the open field about the Belmont encampment, when, 
with a fierce charge by the combined forces, the abatis was 
crossed and the Rebels driven from the camp. In this last charge 
in the open field and into the enemy's encampment, many of our 
men were shot; Col. Lauman himself shortly falling with a ball 
through the thigh. It was here that Lieut. DeHeuss, of the 
Seventh Iowa, sprang forward and planted the company's flag on 
one of the rebel cannon, and here that Sergt. Wallen, of Co. I, 
rushed in front of the Seventh with his own flag, and led the 
huzzahing regiment to the capture of a rebel banner in the camp. 
A short galling fire followed from behind tents and trees, and 
the Rebels ran to the embankment of the river and near woods to 
hide from destruction. 

The engagement was over. The victory was complete. The 
Rebels were "disastrously beaten," according to Gren. Polk's 
own testimony in a letter of July 22, 1862, complaining of Gen. 
Pillow to the rebel War Department. " Re-enforcements only," 
he adds, "rescued Pillow from annihilation." 

Then commenced the fatal blundering of the day. The union 
men dropped their arms and were plundering the rebel camp. 
Some of the union officers, elated with victory, were riding 
about making speeches to the men, thinking how it would all 
count at the polls in Iowa and Illinois. Then came the burning 
of the rebel tents. Leisurely and jollily the union boys were 
having a good time, while in the meantime, right there in broad 
day light, the Rebels were hurrying forces over from Columbus 
to surround and possibly destroy them. Where was the union 
battery — where the captured guns, and where the gunboats? 
that it was permitted to wooden steam-boats, loaded to the 



THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. 85 

water's edge with soldiers, to ferry back and forth ? That was 
the marvel of Belmont. 

Some of the union men were firing the captured guns at 
empty steamers anchored far out of range below Columbus, and 
cheering. " 1 tried to get them, " says Grant in his memoirs, 
"to turn their guns upon the loaded steamers above, and not so 
far away. My efforts were in vain.' 1 The troops, officers and men, 
it seems, were too drunk with victory to hear orders. The gun- 
boats busied themselves a little with the upper batteries and 
withdrew, apparently not concerned about the steamboats carry- 
ing the Rebels over the river to cut us off. But one Sergeant, at 
least, was at his duty. Jeff. Crookham, of the Seventh Iowa, 
with a little squad of men pulling away a captured cannon, 
stopped and fired it three times into the rebel steamboats. " We 
were struck several times," says the rebel captain of the steam- 
boat " Charm," " and one of the shots went through the boiler 
deck prostrating one of the pilots." Had the guns at hand been 
used by the others as Sergt. Crookham used his that day, no 
Rebels could have crossed the river. 

All this time the defeated Rebels were lying under the river 
bank, waiting to surrender. Soon the camp tents were fired, 
and then the batteries at Columbus opened, when the fresh rebel 
troops, and the defeated ones, too, with new courage, entered the 
woods to the flank and rear of the laughing, shouting, speech- 
making union forces. Then came a cry, " We are surrounded." 

" We cut our way in," cried Gen. Grant, " and we can cut 
our way out." " The alarm of ' surrounded,' " says the General, 
" brought the men under control — and now commenced the new 
battle for the boats. The same woods had to be fought through 
that had cost such a struggle on entering — and there were twice 
as many Rebels to fight as before. Polk had come over himself, 
with Cheatham, and several regiments of fresh troops. In fact, 
not less than eleven thousand men were now thrown in the path of 
the Federals striving to reach the transports. Grant had not 2,500 
men in the engagement. 

Again the struggle was renewed. The men fought as fiercely 
as on entering the wood, and, spite of the overpowering numbers, 



86 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

cut their way back to the boats. " Every other man of my reg- 
iment," says Lauman, "was killed or wounded. The confusion 
was great. Lt.-Col. Wentz was shot dead just as the retreat 
commenced. Major Rice had been seriously wounded, Lieut. 
Dodge killed, and Lieuts. Gardner and Ream mortally wounded. 
Capts. Harper, Parrott, Kittredge and Gardner, and Lieut. De 
Heuss were also wounded, and the men had fallen by hundreds. 
It was, in fact, a desperate retreat, and a miracle almost that the 
whole force was not annihilated. The gunboats were now of 
immense service, for as the rebel lines followed the union forces 
to the transports, the Tyler and Lexington, lying a little lower 
down the stream, poured a terrible enfilading fire into their 
ranks. The banks of the river were high and the river low . 
This prevented the fire of the rebel lines doing great harm on 
the transports. 

Gen. Grant was the last man to get on board. He had 
gone to look after the five companies he had stationed below to 
protect the boats. "My surprise was great, 1 ' says Gen. Grant, 
u to find there was not a single man in the trench." Capt. 
Detrich, on hearing the second engagement, had simply marched 
his men to the boats without firing a shot. Had the Rebels 
known how unprotected the place had been left, they could have 
burned the boats and captured Grant's army. As it was, the 
incident nearly cost the capture of the General, who, besides, 
barely escaped being killed after reaching the boat. A rebel bal 
passed through the sofa, in the cabin, where a moment before he 
had lain down to rest. 

Slowly the little fleet, protected by the gunboats, steamed 
away. That night, twenty-four hours after their leaving Cairo 
in such spirits, they returned. Their loss had been, according to 
Gen. Grant's memoirs, 485 men, killed, wounded and missing. 
Of this the Seventh Iowa alone, according to Col. Lauman's 
report to Gen. Grant, lost 227, or more than one-half its number 
engaged, showing the fierceness with which it had fought; 
54 were dead, 124 wounded, and 49 missing — and this out of 
a force of only some 400 engaged. In fact the Seventh lost 
nearly one-half of Grant's total loss. Capt. Crabb, Lieut. Estle, 



THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. 87 

Adjt. Boler and Private Lawrence Gregg were mentioned 
for special gallantry. Lawrence Gregg, a talented young 
Oskaloosian, had a leg shot off, and died a hero's death in the 
hands of the enemy. 

Belmont was a defeat for the union forces, and barely escaped 
being a disaster. It cost many good lives and resulted in very 
little, or nothing. For the Rebels, it was scarcely a victory, spite 
the thanks of Jefferson Davis for the " contribution to the 
cause," as he called it, and of the thanks rendered God by the 
rebel Congress. Polk and the Rebels had misconstrued the 
movement to be an attack on Columbus and all its fortifications. 
He believed that he had rescued the Confederacy from an 
awful danger, and gave thanks accordingly. 

Gen. Smith had made his demonstration on Columbus also, 
but reading his positive orders more closely he brought on no 
engagement. Gen Paine, whom he had sent forward in 
charge of the demonstration, he ordered to be court-martialed 
for approaching too close to the enemy, and for proposing to 
bring on an engagement that might have resulted in his little 
band being "cut up in its retreat." There were not a few at the 
time who believed that Gen. Fremont ought to have treated 
Gen. Grant in the way that Paine was treated by Gen. 
Smith. In later years, and with riper experience, Gen. Grant 
would have expected as much. 



CHAPTER IX. 

AFTER BELMONT. 

After Belmont, there was no little complaint of injustice hav- 
ing been done the Iowa men in the general reports of the battle 
There was an impression that certain Illinois officers labored to 
convince the public that the battle had been won, if won at all, 
by Illinois troops. Iowa soldiers felt that this injustice rose 
largely from the fact that Iowa regiments were usually brigaded 
with regiments of other states, and commanded by officers from 
other states who were in many ways partial to the services of 
their own men. Besides, Iowa had received but one or two 
brigadier commissions. Her men, during a most inclement 
winter, were put upon the most laborious and undesirable duties 
in Missouri, guarding long lines of railroad and policing camps. 
Regiments were cut and divided into squads distant from each 
other for the performance of arduous duties; chasing guerrillas 
and defending unimportant places where honor and promotion 
were never to be obtained. Nor was it a rare thing to be used 
for protecting the property of Secessionists. 

On the 4th of December, 1861, Gov. Kirkwood wrote to Presi- 
dent Lincoln, urging him to remedy these grievances. " Iowa," 
he wrote, " has some 20,000 soldiers in the field, or in camp wait- 
ing equipments, and I am proud to say that so far as they have 
been tried, either on the battle field or in the scarcely less ardu- 
ous duties of camp life in Missouri, they have shown themselves 
to be at least equal to any other troops in the service. But the 
troops from Iowa have not been commanded enough by their 
own men. They have been unfairly dealt with, in their opin- 
ion, as to assignments to the most laborious duties in Missouri, 
and injustice is done them in the reports as to Belmont. I am 
sorry to be compelled to say that, in my judgment, this opinion 

(88) 



AFTEE BELMONT. 89 

is not wholly without foundation. It is an unfortunate state 
of affairs that should not be suffered to continue." 

Certain it was that Iowa soldiers were having a hard, bitter 
lot of it, that cold and disagreeable winter in Missouri, guarding 
the state from Rebels, freezing in their tents, sick in hospitals, 
and all their services unrecognized and unrewarded. One of the 
remedies urged again and again by Gov. Kirkwood, was the 
brigading of Iowa troops together, under command of Iowa 
generals. To the President he urged for promotion to briga- 
diers, the names of Grenville M. Dodge of the Fourth infantry, 
Nicholas Perczel of the Tenth, Marcellus M. Crocker of the 
Thirteenth, and Washington L. Elliott of the Second Iowa cav- 
alry — all these bearing the rank of colonel. 

The difficulty of finding places enough in the Iowa regiments 
for all the good men asking, was not less now than in the first 
days of the war. Honest John Edwards had expected the col- 
onelcy of the Sixteenth, but another, Col. Chambers, bore away 
the prize. The Governor was mortified at what might seem neg- 
lect of Edwards, for he had promised him this position. Cham- 
bers was in the regular army, and the Governor had at an earlier 
date offered him this regiment; but the War Department would 
not permit Chambers to accept. Then it was offered to Ed- 
wards. Meanwhile the War Department had changed its mind, 
and the Adjutant General, knowing only of the tender to Cham- 
bers, issued his commission at the moment John Edwards was 
expecting the prize. It was a sample case of the embarrass- 
ments that constantly surrounded the Governor, as to the mili- 
tary offices, and that sometimes led to bad blood, misunderstand- 
ings and false accusations. 

Then came the Seventeenth regiment with Col. Rankin, and 
the Governor hastened to offer John Edwards the second place. 
"I extract this from a letter of Rankin's to-day," writes the 
Governor to Edwards. kt I feel sorry for Edwards if Chambers 
is ahead. He left Des Moines with a light heart, and full of 
great expectation. If he will take the lieutenant-colonelcy of 
my regiment, I will be glad to have it tendered to him." 

" Now, Colonel, for God's sake, and my sake, accept. I feel 



90 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

more mortified and embarrassed about your position than I have 
ever been about anything in my life. You had been so consid- 
erate, so modest, so little disposed to be urgent, that it was a 
pleasure to me to be able to give you a commission, and my mor- 
tification at the result, which is so mortifying to you, is great. 
Do accept." 

Edwards did not accept, but later was given command of a 
regiment on the south border, where he did splendid service in a 
difficult position. Later still he led the gallant Eighteenth reg- 
iment, as its colonel, and was made brigadier general for 
meritorious service. 

Very plain were some of the applications for posts, but plain- 
ness of speech gave no offense. To Col. Worthington, of the 
Fifth infantry, who desired promotion to a brigadiership, though 
it was not possible to secure the favor, he wrote: "Your plain- 
ness of inquiry, though, is not offensive to me. I aai a plain 
man myself, and like the same quality in others.'" Gov. Kirk- 
wood, in all these conflicts for place, strove to be direct and 
honest, but all could not be pleased. Like Mr. Lincoln, the Gov- 
ernor had more pegs in the shape of friends than holes to put 
them in. 

The year 1861 ended gloomily enough. There had not been 
many victories for our arms in the field, and dissatisfaction pre- 
vailed with officers at Washington, while a war with England 
was very possible. " I agree with you," wrote the Governor to 
Senator Grimes, on the 8th of January, 1862, about a war with 
England. " She is, 1 think, determined to fight us, and if so, 
can easily make a pretext. In God's name, can't something be 
done by our army? 

"It seems to me the policy of the country is controlled by 
men who twelve months ago opposed ' coercion,' and who six 
months ago had not made up their minds whether to go for the 
Union or the Rebels. I have never desponded until the last few 
weeks, but now it seems to me our generals and the President's 
outside advisers are more concerned to break down the republi- 
can party than to defeat the Rebels." 

Those were not cheerful Christmas times in the North; but 
eoon a new star was to shine, and a first new tide in our affairs 
was to come in at Donelson, — and it was to come largely with 
the bayonets of Iowa men. 



CHAPTER X. 

IOWA AT DONELSON. 
Feb. 16, 1862. 

Two days after the battle of Belmont, Fremont was removed. 
Gov. Kirkwood protested vigorously against it, and prophesied 
disaster as a result. Mutiny did very nearly follow among the 
troops whom Fremont had organized and was at last leading 
against the enemy in Missouri. The authorities at Washington, 
however, were not listening then to the loyal Governors as 
much as they were listening to the political Cassandras who saw 
only evil in any vigorous conduct of the war. And yet, so far, 
it must be considered, Fremont had won few or no victories; 
but the brilliant successes of Ft. Henry, Ft. Donelson and Pea 
Ridge that shortly followed under Gen. Halleck, were won with 
the troops Fremont had prepared for battle. Had President 
Lincoln waited a little, Fremont's history would have been re- 
versed; he would have been promoted, and not disgraced. Fre- 
mont was an Abolitionist. Naturally, the conservatives, the 
pro-slavery men and all sympathizers with secession, opposed 
him and clamored for his removal. Spite, however, of all oppo- 
sition, he might have still retained his command, and the cause 
been benefited, had he possessed the wisdom to surround himself 
with different advisers, or had he even posed less for effect in St. 
Louis and pushed from him the men whose hands opened only 
for the spoils of war. Fremont fell a victim to army contracts. 
Personally he reaped no benefits, and left the service a poor man. 

Gen. Halleck, on coming west to take Fremont's place, found 
the rebel front stretching across Kentucky and Tennessee in a 
fortified line: from Columbus on the Mississippi, to Nashville on 
the Cumberland, with strong posts like Donelson and Ft. Henry 
midway between. The rebel troops were commanded by Albert 
Sidney Johnston, whom the Southerners affect to this day 

(91) 



92 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

to believe their ablest general. Gen. Halleck directed the west- 
ern army from St. Louis. Gen. Johnston directed the Rebels 
from Nashville, the capital of the state, and the right flank of 
his long line. He concluded to fight for that capital, however, 
at the strong posts of Columbus, Donelson and Ft. Henry, on his 
left. Buell faced him at Nashville,but Buellkept headquarters, 
not in the field, but north in Louisville. Perhaps Albert Sidney 
Johnston did not fear Buell much. There was a man in imme- 
diate command in front of his extreme left, whom, for some good 
reason, he did fear. It was the hero of the affair at Belmont. 

After that November struggle under the great guns at Colum- 
bus, until in February, Gen. Grant had been quietly drilling and 
preparing his forces at Cairo. His troops were mostly raw 
recruits. Few had ever fired a gun in battle. Besides preparing 
his troops at Cairo, Grant, with the true military eye that was so 
soon to distinguish him, was studying the enemy's line of 
defense. Only fifty miles away from the Mississippi river is 
another river, running parallel with it, but going north instead of 
south. Eleven miles further, is another, also running north. 
The one is the Cumberland, the other is the Tennessee. Ft. 
Donelson defended the one, Ft. Henry the other — while the 
powerful works of Columbus barred the Mississippi. 

Columbus, if it cannot be taken, can be flanked, thought Gen. 
Grant, and the capture of Henry and Donelson would open riv- 
ers straight into the heart of the Confederacy. In the last days 
of the first month of 1862, Grant tried to impress on Halleck the 
expediency of permitting him to try his plan of opening these 
interior rivers. He met only with rebuff. Fixed in his idea 
that it was the proper thing to do, he applied at headquarters 
again. " I can take and hold Ft. Henry, if permitted," he tele- 
graphed on the 28th of January. The permission came. A 
rapid movement of troops to a position back of the fortress, and 
Henry surrendered to a galling fire from fifty-four cannon on 
Foote's gunboats. It was a matter of no time. " I hope that 
what has been done will meet the approval of the Department," 
writes Grant to Halleck on the 6th of February, just after Ft. 
Henry. It certainly did, and of all the country. 



IOWA AT DONELSON". 



93 



FORT DONELSON. 

Point where the Second 
Iowa charged the Rebel 
works and placed 
their flag. 




94 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

" Now, I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson ou the 8th," 
he adds, in a significant and confident telegram. Events de- 
layed him beyond that date. On the 7th, his troops are hurry- 
ing through the cold and mud across the eleven miles to Donel- 
son, on the Cumberland. Among those hurrying troops were 
some of the men of Iowa, destined soon to add new laurels to 
the brow of the loyal state. 

Donelson stands on the left bank of the Cumberland river, 
near the town of Dover; only, nowadays men speak of Dover as 
being near to Donelson. Events have changed the phrase and 
made the history. 

" Gen. Halleck did not approve or disapprove of my going to 
Donelson,' 1 says Grant in his memoirs. " He said nothing to 
me on the subject. 1 ' The confident telegram sent to the great 
man at St. Louis from Ft. Henry received no answer. All the 
same, the 12th of February saw Grant's little army filling the 
deep hollows and covering the rough and wooded hills around 
Ft. Donelson. The mud and the cold, the sleet, the snow and 
the bitter wind, made it uncomfortable enough for the men who 
shivered along the lines of investment, with short rations, with 
no blankets, with no overcoats, without fires or tents, with little 
or no sleep, and nothing in their hands but their rifles. It was 
a rough, bad country, back of Donelson, with its deep ravines 
and scraggy woods. The line of investment ran in a semi-circle, 
from the back-water of the river near Dover on the right, around 
to Hickman's Creek on the left. On the opposite side of Fort 
Donelson was the river, watched by the federal gunboats. The 
advance rebel intrenchments and light breastworks ran almost 
parallel with the lines of the investing force, a thousand yards 
in front of the fort. Behind these were other lines, and, in front 
of all, a difficult abatis made by felling trees, their tops outward. 

Gen. Grant formed his lines by placing Gen. McClernand's 
division of Illinois troops on the extreme right, with Gen. C. F. 
Smith's division, including the Iowa regiments, on the left. 
Gen. Lew. Wallace^ division, with its Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, 
Kentucky and Illinois soldiers, held the center. It was a great 
venture, to undertake the reduction of a place so strongly forti- 



IOWA AT DONELSOX. 95 

fied as Donelson was by nature, and by the best of intrenchments; 
that, too, in mid-winter, the soldiers ill}' clad, no fires, and even 
no positive permission of the chief commander for battle. The 
capture, though, could be of immense importance, for Donelson 
was the key to Nashville. 

Grant had expected to take Donelson in a single day. Events 
rapidly following showed how much he was mistaken. On the 
14th, the lines had the appearance of besiegers. Some of the 
troops were not yet to the front. The Second Iowa was hurry- 
ing up the Cumberland river as fast as steam could carry it, from 
St. Louis. It was due to Gen. Grant's personal endeavors that 
the Second Iowa was in the fight at all. From its station in St. 
Louis, it had been ordered by Halleck to join Gen. Curtis in the 
west. Had it gone, it would have been at Pea Ridge instead of 
Donelson. At the time of the order to go to Curtis, Gen. Grant 
happened to be in St. Louis, when Tuttle, the Colonel of the 
Second, visited the General and asked him to protest against the 
order. He found Grant alone, quietly smoking a cigar on the 
balcony of the Planter's House. There was a long, quiet talk 
about the prospects in the North — they were not very bright 
just then, and Grant himself was having difliculty in convincing 
Halleck that the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers were the 
right road into the Confederacy. He still had hopes of per- 
mission to try the plan. It was, however, not wholly his 
own plan. Gen. C. F. Smith approved the course; so did Flag 
Officer Foote, and Sherman and others. ''If I can go," said 
Grant, " I want your regiment with me." It was a big, new 
full regiment of Iowa boys. The General accompanied the 
Colonel to Halleck's headquarters. The order to go west was 
rescinded, and while Grant was marching over from Henry to 
Donelson, Col. Tuttle was ordered to put his regiment on a 
steamer and hurry with other steamers full, up the Cumberland, 
to help him. 

The roll beat, and the men assembled at quarters. The Colonel 
went to the train to start the ladies of his family north and say 
farewell to them. On his return to his regiment, he saw it, to 
his utter amazement, marching to the transports with folded 



96 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

colors and with silent drum. The Second Iowa was in disgrace. 
Some of the men had violated discipline, and the whole regi- 
ment, by the order of the post commander, Gen. Hamilton, was 
being punished. Tuttle flew into a rage, hurried to Hamilton, 
hurried to Halleck, and the storm of words had the ardor of a 
battle. Almost open mutiny was talked of. The harsh order 
was not revoked. " But go to the front," said Gen. Halleck to 
the angered Colonel — "Go to the front; Gen. Grant shall give 
you a fighting chance, and no man shall, if you prove heroes, be 
so quick to let the country know it as myself." * 

In an hour's time the ropes were loosed, and the steamer, 
crowded with irate men, pulled down the river, using even- 
means to overtake the fleet, to hurry to Grant, and by deeds of 
valor wipe the stigma from the regimental flag. At the mouth 
of the Cumberland, the pilot, a secession sympathizer, as were 
most of the lower river pilots of that day, concluded he would 
take the boat no further. " I can't, you know. I am not a 
Cumberlabd river man. You must get a special pilot." A spe- 
cial pilot was sought for, but none was to be found in Paducah, 
and none in Smithland. " Now, can't you?" said the Colonel 
again to the obstinate pilot. " We must go up the river at 
once." " I can't and I won't," added the man of the tiller. 
" Won't you," shouted the Colonel, suddenly reaching for some- 
thing in his breast pocket. " Now take that wheel, and run this 
boat straight up the river." The whistle blew, the bell rang, 
the ropes were loosed, and the boat went on her way; while for 
hours, sitting or standing beside the pilot, was an officer with 
his hand on his breast pocket, helping the pilot to steer his boat 
up the Cumberland. It was an incident preparatory to graver 
eveats. In sight of Donelson, the fleet is overtaken, the troops 
get ashore, the pilot breathes easier, and Gen. Grant has put the 
Second Iowa in Smith's division, and at a point where it will 

*The Second Regiment was guarding McDowell College, in St. Louis, 
at this time. The building was used as a prison for Rebels, but the rooms 
containing the museum and specimens belonging to the college, remained as 
in time of peace. Some vandal, possibly of the Second regiment, and pos- 
sibly not, robbed this museum of part of its contents. As the Second Iowa 
was guarding it, it was held responsible for the outrage, and the whole reg- 
ment was disgraced by orders. 



IOWA AT DONELSON. 97 

have a " good fighting chance. 1 ' The very next day, the 15th, 
the chance is to be given. Already there had been heavy fight- 
ing at Donelson, and almost the first battle cries that met the 
ears of the Second Iowa were, " the assaults have failed." 

On the 14th, Gen. McClernand, on the right, had attempted, 
with a few regiments, to storm and capture a well defended bat- 
tery in his front. It was a fierce fight, but as the battery was 
defended by half the rebel army, the advancing Illinoisans 
were nearly annihilated. Some one had blundered. The same 
day the federal gunboats approached and shelled the rebel 
water batteries at Grant's left, and under the rebel fort. The 
gunboats were disabled and fell back with much loss, while some 
fighting at the left failed also. That night the rebel com- 
mander telegraphed to Richmond news of a victory at Donelson, 
and the disheartened federal soldiers lay down in the cold with- 
out blankets or fires. The wind was so bitter and so merciless, 
it was feared many of the soldiers might freeze. They huddled 
together in squads, with perhaps a single blanket over the heads 
of half a dozen men. In some cases the officers went about 
and shook the men to prevent numbness, sleep and freezing 
overtaking them. Some of the Rebels were frozen that night. 
Gen. C. P. Smith sat the merciless night through, on a log, 
wrapped only in a small rubber blanket. The exposure was too 
much, and in a few weeks the gallant soldier who was to lead 
the Iowa men on the morrow, died near Pittsburg Landing. 

At daylight of the 15th, Gen. Grant rode some seven miles 
over the rough frozen roads, down to the river, to consult with 
Flag Officer Foote, in command of the gunboats. In that inter- 
view it was concluded to send the gunboats back to Cairo for 
repairs, while the army should commence a siege. On his return, 
about noon, the commander was amazed to learn that a battle 
had taken place in his absence, and that disaster was at that 
moment threatening the army. Shortly after daylight the entire 
rebel army had made an effort to cut its way out of Donelson. 
Grant's right wing, under McClernand, had been terrifically 
assailed, its columns driven to retreat, and doubled back on the 
center, under Wallace. For hours, the conflict raged with severe 
I. W. T.— 7 



98 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

loss to the Union line. Croft's brigade of Wallace's division 
was sent in to help, but, losing its way in the woods, fell back 
with the retreating regiments. At that instant Thayer's big 
brigade was thrown across the path of the rushing Rebels, and 
drove them back into their intrenchments. 

Grant, cool and unperturbed by the din of the battle, rapidly 
took in the situation. The prisoners and the wounded showed 
that the rebel regiments went into battle with knapsacks and 
rations for a march. Plainly they were trying to escape. Being 
foiled, thought Grant, the enemy must be greatly demoralized. 
It was one of those moments in war when quick observation 
and sudden resolution win battles. " The one who attacks first 
now," said Grant to his chief of staff, " will be victorious, and 
the enemy will have to be in a hurry if he gets ahead of me."* 

An assault on the extreme left by Smith's division, including 
all the Iowa troops, was determined on at once. The fighting 
chance had come. The chief of staff rode all along the line 
toward the left, crying to the soldiers: "Fill your cartridge 
boxes, quick, and fall in. The enemy is trying to escape." 

Gen. Smith, in person, ordered Lauman's brigade to assault. 
The Second Iowa was at the left of the brigade, the Seventh Iowa 
next, the Twenty-fifth Indiana next, and the Fourteenth, led by 
Col. Shaw, at the right. Berge's sharpshooters, though attached 
to the brigade, were not in line. " The attack was made," says 
Shaw, "by regiments in double column, left in front." Col. 

*That Gen. Grant was not quite sure of the situation, and that the Second 
Iowa's going straight into, and taking the breastworks at Donelson, was 
more than was calculated on, the following note to Commodore Foote clearly 
implies. The brave charge more than " saved appearances." It won Don- 
elson: 

Camp, Near Fort Donelson, Feb. 15, 1862. 
Andrew H. Foote, Commanding Officer Gunboat Flotilla: 

If all the gunboats that can, will immediately make their appearance to 
the enemy, it may secure us a victory. Otherwise all may be defeated. A 
terrible conflict ensued in my absence, which has demoralized a portion ot 
my command, and I think the enemy is much more so. If the gunboats do 
not show themselves, it will reassure the enemy, and still farther demoralize 
our troops. I must order a charge to save appearances. I do not expect the 
gunboats to go into action, but to make appearance and throw a few shell* 
at long range. U. S. Grant, 

Brigadier-General, Commanding. 



IOWA AT DONELSON". 99 

Tuttle, with the left wing of his regiment, led the assault, his 
right wing following with the other regiments in order. 

"Can you go into the intrenchments?" said the gray-haired 
veteran, the trained soldier, Gen. Smith, to Col. Tuttle. " Yes," 
was the prompt response. " Support us, only, for we are going 
in there, and don't you forget it /' 

Smith scarcely believed it possible for his men to absolutely 
take the fortifications in his front, nor could he be sure that 
Gen. Grant intended more than a violent demonstration, to mis- 
lead the enemy, while his troops elsewhere on the line should 
make some other movement, before being driven to resort to a 
siege. 

It was no child's play-ground, that — five hundred yards of 
rough ascent covered with fallen trees, with sharpened limbs, 
with the long line of rifle pits, and, back of these, a determined, 
angry foe. Already the rebel troops could be seen rushing back 
from their left, to defend their intrenchments. The sun had 
come out brightly, as if to witness a spectacle. The wind and 
the snow were almost gone, and the birds, frightened from the 
thundering cannon on the far right all the forenoon, were again 
chirping in the woods around the assembling columns. 

" Fix bayonets! forward, and without firing!" came the order. 
Col. Tuttle drew his sword and marched slowly ahead, his half 
regiment following. Not far behind, led by Lt.-Col. Baker, 
followed the other half of the regiment. No man spoke — no 
shot was fired. Soon, as the Second regiment reaches the abatis, 
the line deploys a little right and left to get round the 
obstacles in its way — extends itself — and then opens from the 
entrenchments a storm of shot and shell and minie ball. No man 
falters. Quietly and stubbornly the lines advance, picking their 
way among the fallen trees. Capt. Cloutman is shot dead. A 
ball tears throught the body of Capt. Slaymaker. "Go on," he 
cries, " your work is there/' Men and officers fall all around. 
But no one hesitates. The column has started to take the en- 
trenchments. " We are going in, and don't you forget it." Closer 
and closer approach the union lines. Hotter and hotter grows 
the rebel storm of shot and shell. No orders are given. Only, 



100 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

"Steady, boys" — "brave boys." Every man is his own com- 
mander, and works his way up, firing still no shot; but with tightly 
grasped rifle, sharp bayonet and gleaming eye, faces the death 
in the trenches. Suddenly there is a cry — the lines are reached. 
" Give them hell, boys, 1 ' shouts the big Colonel, and the boys of 
Iowa are over the entrenchments, pouring a flood of bullets after 
the Rebels, who are flying across a ravine and over to an inner 
line of breastworks. There they halt, and a pitched battle 
ensues for the captured ground. It is in vain that fresh rebel 
regiments hurry to the contest. The men who charged so dar- 
ingly will not give up the ground. And other regiments are 
climbing the abatis to help them. 

The Fourteenth Iowa being on the right of the brigade, was the 
last to attack. Shaw led it and advanced upon the enemy's works 
to the right of the other regiments, Gen. Smith riding part of the 
way with him. Being separated by fallen timber, the latter re- 
joined Shaw inside the enemy's works. Here it was that Gen. 
Smith took his canteen, swung it over his head, cheered, and 
offered the Colonel a drink. At Shaw's right, the Twelfth Iowa, 
of Cook's brigade, advanced a little later, but was in the works in 
time to be severely engaged, and to help prevent the re-enforced 
enemy from driving our own troops out. Col. Woods led the 
regiment. It had at first made a feint of attack further to the 
right, but now moved to the left toTuttle's support, and charging 
through the fallen timber, received a galling fire of grape and can- 
ister. On reaching the breastworks, the regiment poured a hot fire 
of musketry into the enemy, who not only met it in front, but 
opened on it with artillery at the right. Under this cross-fire, 
the Twelfth fought the enemy for two hours, helping to drive 
him from and beyond the deep ravine back of the breastworks. 
The Seventh Iowa, led by Col. Parrott, had promptly advanced, 
and fought with extreme bravery, adding to the splendid reputa- 
tion it had won at Belmont. All the Iowa regiments, especially 
the Second, had won the admiration of the army and the 
country. 

The assault of the Second Iowa, supported by the three other 
Iowa regiments and the Twenty-fifth Indiana, won the battle of 



IOWA AT DONELSON. 101 

Donelson. It was an Iowa victory. " There was nothing," says 
Shaw, " in the history of the whole war, that excels that charge 
of the Second Iowa." 

That night in the cold and dreariness lay the wounded, friend 
and foe, and all night went orders right and left to prepare 
for storming the main works on the morrow. 

The scene inside the fort was one of melancholy and despair. 
Cold, and hungry, and defeated, the illy clad rebel soldiers 
waited and feared the morrow. Some of the rebel officers, with 
their commands, stricken with cowardice, slipped over the river, 
deserted their comrades and escaped; among them, their chief 
commanders, Floyd and Pillow. Gen S. B. Buckner assumed 
command of the desperate position, and long before morning 
this little note was sent to a subordinate officer: 

u Have the white flag hoisted on Fort Donelson, but not the 
batteries. S. B. Buckler, Brigadier GeneraV 

The officer was directed further to seek communication with 
Gen. Grant through the nearest federal picket. That was 
one of the posts of Lauman's brigade. In the gray of the early 
morning, a truce bugle Avas heard, and an officer bearing a white 
flag and a note to Gen. Grant, approached the picket line. 
Lauman sent the note to Smith, the division commander, who 
sent it to Grant. The world knows the answer to that little 
note sent in the gray of the morning.* 

Donelson surrendered unconditionally, and by full daylight, 
white flags all along the rebel line showed that the contest was 
finished. Gen. Lauman rightly claimed for his brigade the 
honor of first marching into the captured fort. So on that 
bright Sunday morning, while the people of the North were 

*The well known summons sent into the rebel fort that- morning read 
as below, and was dated Feb. 16, at headquarters in the field, Camp 
Donelson : 
Gen. S. B. Buckner, Confederate Army: 

Sir: Yours of this date, proposing armistice, and appointment of com- 
missioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms 
except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I pro- 
pose to move immediately upon your works. 

1 am sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant, Brig. Gm'l. 



102 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

kneeling in their homes and churches to pray for victory, the 
Fourth brigade, headed by the Second Iowa, marched into Don- 
elson with flags flying, and to the sound of fifes and drums and 
union cannon. So Donelson was won. 

Halleck kept his word. The Second Iowa had had its fight- 
ing chance. In the hands of the writer is this telegram: 

"St. Louis, Feb. 18, 1862. 
"Adjutant General Baker: 

" The Second Iowa infantry proved themselves the bravest of 

the brave. They had the honor of leading the column which 

entered Fort Donelson. 

41 H. W. Halleck, Major General." 

In the midst of the gloom that hung over the country that 
winter of 1861-2, Donelson came like a new light. It was the 
first great victory of the West. Fifteen thousand men, with 
sixty cannon, and large supplies, had surrendered at discretion. 

But the surrender itself was nothing compared with the im- 
mense results that followed. " It was the turning point of the 
war,' 1 said Halleck to McClellan. The whole rebel line of the West, 
from Nashville to Columbus, fell back a hundred miles. The 
key to Nashville was gone. Columbus was evacuated. " The 
situation," says Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston to Jefferson Davis, 
" left me no alternative but to evacuate Nashville or sacrifice the 
army."' The blow was disastrous and almost without a remedy. 
It had cost Grant's troops heavily. The casualties were 2,832 
men, the greatest losses being in McClernand's division on the 
right. The left also lost heavily, for the number fighting. 

The Second Iowa, out of only 630 engaged in the assault, lost 
197 men — 33 killed and 161 wounded. The Seventh Iowa lost 
39, the Fourteenth regiment 26 (one of whom was captured), 
and the Twelfth, 30; but these, except as to the Second, included 
some losses of the preceding days, when one or two futile efforts 
were made to dislodge the enemy in front of Smith.* The 

*Among other attempts preceding the main assault, had been a very gal- 
lant but vain effort of the Fourteenth Iowa and th? Twenty-6fth Indiana two 
days before, to capture a rebel battery in front of Lauuian's brigade. The 
Seventh and Twelfth also engaged in the attacks of the 13th of February. 



IOWA AT DONELSOtf. 103 

Second regiment's loss was wholly in the charge of that after- 
noon. 

Many Iowa men made heroes of themselves that day — many 
filled heroes' graves. Slaymaker, and Cloutman, and Harper, of 
the Second, fell dead leading their men in the charge. At their 
sides fell lesser officers from almost every company. Sergeants 
Doolittle, Doty, Dunn, Jurney and Morse, and Corporals Meally, 
Page and Berkey, with 31 privates, lay dead in their tracks, as 
our men went over the intrenchments. Major Chipman, and 
Lieutenants J. B. Weaver, Holmes, Tisdale, Ensign, Godfrey, 
Huntington and Bing, with many privates, were wounded.* 
Every man of the little color guard was killed, wounded or in- 
jured. Sergt. Doolittle, bearing the flag, fell, pierced with four 
bullets. Corp. Page grasped the fallen flag and was shot dead. 
Corp. Churchill seized it and was wounded. Corp. Twomblyf 
sprang forward, and was knocked down by a spent ball, but 
rising, bore the honored flag to the end of the fight. 

The following names are referred to in Col. Tuttle's report as 
worthy of mention for gallantry: Lt.-Col. Baker, Maj. Chip- 
man, Adjt. Tuttle, Captains Mills, Cox, Moore, Wilkin; Lieuten- 
ants Scofield, Ensign, Davis, Holmes, Huntington, Weaver, 
Mastick, Snowden and Godfrey, and Sergt. Maj. Brawner. Sur- 
geons Marsh and Nassau were complimented for devotion and 
bravery. 

The Seventh Iowa had two privates killed, and two Lieuten- 
ants (James B. Sample and Wm. G. Moore), five Sergeants, two 
Corporals, and twenty-eight privates wounded. The Fourteenth 
Iowa lost on the day of the charge but eight men — one killed 
and seven wounded; among them, S. H. Smith, the Sergeant 
Major, who fell dead at the Colonel's side. The Twelfth Iowa, 
fighting in the Third brigade, lost one man killed and 27 
wounded. Lt.-Col. Coulter, Maj. Brodtbeck, Sergt. Maj. Morrisy 
and Color Sergt. Grannis were complimented for gallantry in 
Col. Woods' report; also for faithful duty, Lieutenants Duncan 
and Dorr, and Surgeons Parker and Finle3 r . 

*Col. Tuttle was seriously injured by a cannon ball striking a log on which 
he was standing inside the breastworks. 

■fThe present State Treasurer of Iowa. 



104 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Col. Tuttle, Lieutenant-Colonels Parrott and Baker, Col. Shaw, 
and Majors Rice and Chipman, were all mentioned by Lauinan 
as deserving honor.* 

The victory made five major generals, while almost every 
colonel commanding was made a brigadier. Curiously enough, 
the rifles used by the Second Kentucky at Donelson against our 
men were the very same six-shooters with which John Brown 
had armed his followers when in Iowa three years before. They 
had been captured with him at Harper's Ferry. 

Donelson surrendered on Sunday morning, February the 16th, 
1861. By noon of Monday the news reached Iowa. The rejoic- 
ings and the gladness were as great as they were long afterward 
when Richmond fell. Many even thought Donelson would end 
the war. The Legislature was in session in Des Moines, and 
when the news came, the rejoicings of its members knew no 
bounds. That afternoon, Gov. Kirkwood gave a loyal men's ban- 
quet, memorable for its words and its joyousness in the state's 
history. Shortly after, accompanied by Dr. Hughes, Surgeon 
General of the state, Senator Udell, and Maj. Kellogg of Deca- 
tur, the Governor went to Donelson, to help and cheer the 
wounded heroes. He brought back with him the bullet-ridden 
flag of the Second Iowa, and hung it above the Speaker's desk in 
the Assembly, as a sign of how Iowa won her honor. It was 
received by Hon. Rush Clark, the Speaker, in a speech glowing 
with tribute to the valor of Iowa soldiers. 

The following private letters written on the battle ground are 
interesting and valuable. Two are from Colonel, afterward Gen. 
Lauman, to his wife and brother, and one is from Colonel, 
afterward Gen. Tuttle, the hero of the charge, to his father: 

Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Feb. 17, 1862. 

Dear Wife: I am again sate. My life is still prolonged. Let me hope 
it is for some good purpose. We have had a great battle, the fight lasting 
for three days, but you will hear of it, and the great result to flow out of it 
long before this reaches you. 

I commanded the Fourth brigade of the Second division, and my com- 
mand made their mark. * * * Poor Jack Slaymaker was killed, 



*The losses at Ft. Donelson are taken from the Rebellion Records. 



IOWA AT DONELSON. 105 

gallantly leading his men to the charge on the last day — indeed, the only 
day the Second were in the engagement. Capt. Cloutman fell, also bravely 
doing his duty. Harry was wounded very severely, but the surgeons say 
he will recover. 1 left my command to see him and poor Jack last evening- 
I have ordered Jack's remains to be properly cared for, to send home to his 
parents, and will see that it is done properly, although my time is so occu- 
pied I hare scarcely time to write this note, nor do I know when nor how it 
will leave here. 1 am now in command of Fort Donelson, and my brigade 
are quartered in the fortifications. We will be ordered forward soon, I hope, 
and I sincerely trust our success will be the harbinger of a speedy close of 
the horrid rebellion. I received your two letters just before we were ordered 
into action, and I had to laugh over your congratulations at my good quar- 
ters in Smithland, when for two nights I had been camped under a tree, 
and it raining and snowing on me, without a tent. But my health is improv- 
ing. My cold, under which I have been suffering, is getting better, and I 
am able to endure a great deal of hardship. 

Gen. Smith (Paducah Smith) is a good soldier. The reputation of the 
Iowa Seventh is as bright as ever, although their loss is trifling. The state 
may well be proud of their troops. 

I lost all my bedding yesterday, and doubt very much if I find it again. 
We marched out of camp leaving everything behind, and our friends helped 
themselves. I will look after Harry — I think he will do well. Dr. Marsh 
says the wound in his stomach did not penetrate far enough to do any ser- 
ious injury. I trust this may be so. He is in good spirits, and bore his flag 
like a hero. Love to all. Good bye. Yours affectionately, 

J. G. Lauman. 

Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Feb. 19, 1862. 

Dear Brother: The battle is fought, the dead are buried and the wounded 
cared for, and we are again settling down to the old routine of military dis- 
cipline. But what a scene we have passed through, and what a victory we 
have won ! We have already sent off eight or nine thousand prisoners, and 
we have more yet to send. But such a lot of humanity I never saw before 
— all butternut color; but they can shoot, as many of our boys can testify. 

I have made my report to Gen. Smith, which I suppose will be published, 
and before this reaches you, you will know more about the battle than I do. 
I have already seen that the Iowa Seventh was all cut up on the first day's 
fight. I hope you did not let any of these reports disturb you. We had a 
hard time. For three nights we lay in the open air without tents, and some 
without blankets, raining and snowing all night. The last night we 
remained under arms all night, prepared to repel an assault; but when 
morning came — and ob ! how long it was in coming— the enemy attracted 
our attention to their white flag, and I received proposals for capitulation, 



106 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

which we promptly forwarded to Gen. Smith, and through him to Gen. 
Grant. Gen. Grant refused terms and insisted on unconditional surrender, 
and an hour was given them to consider. At the end of that time the loud 
shouts of the men gave indications that the surrender was unconditional. 
Then commenced the rejoicings. I claimed for my brigade the right to 
enter first, which was accorded; when with drums beating and colors flying 
we entered the fort. The Rebels were drawn up in line, with their arms in 
great heaps, and looked quite woe-begone, I assure you, as the victors passed 
along. 

My brigade is in the fort, of which I have command. Gen. Smith's divis- 
ion is quartered all around about. The fortifications extend over the country 
for miles, and the other division of the army encamped at other points. 
The greatest loss was on our right, in McClernand's division. The enemy 
endeavored to cut through at that point, and fought with great desperation 
— loss very heavy. But you know all this and more, and this will be stale 
news to you. I found the pistols I lost at Belmont at Fort Donelson, or 
others just as good. 

Capt. R will return to Burlington, he informed me to-day, for a short 

time. So he informed me, but he may not be able to get off. If he does, I 
will send a flag, secesh; captured in the fort. They either destroyed or 
secreted their flags, as none could be found. I have not yet seen the reports 
of my commanding officer, but Gen. Grant has caused a highly compliment- 
ary order to be read to the troops. Gen. Smith is a good officer, and as 
brave as a lion. I am proud to be under him. I had a good brigade, and I 
believe they like me. I hope the rebellion will receive such a shock from 
this that they will not be able to hold up their heads for some time to come. 
I am obliged to Jenny for her kind and very acceptable letter, and hope she 
will write again. I received a letter from Gov. Kirkwood covering the reso- 
lutions of the legislature of Iowa, and had them read to my regiment last 
evening. Tell Lou that Harry Doolittle is doing well. I went to the boat 
to see him, but it had started before I got there. He will remain for the 
present at Paducah, I suppose. I met, as I was on my way to Dover, where 
the boat was lying, Drs. Marsh and Nassau of Iowa Second, who gave me 
this information. Among the hundreds of wounded and dead, it is almost 
impossible to keep the whereabouts of anyone. I must now bring this to a 
close. Let Lou see this, and it- will be the same as though I had written to 
her. Capt. Slaymaker's remains were forwarded to St. Louis for prepara- 
tion to send home. I cut off a lock of his hair and sent it to Betty for his 
friends, fearing something might occur that the coffin could not be opened 
when it got home. Give my love to all, and if anything should befall me; 
take good care of wife and little ones, and believe me to be your affectionate 
brother, Jacob. 




GENERAL JAS. M. TUTTLE. 



IOWA AT DONELSON". 107 

Fort Donelson, Feb. 18, 1862. 

Dear Father: Long before you get this, the telegraph will inform you of 
the particulars of the capture of this very important post, and also the part 
the Second Iowa took in it. I do not know how the reports will reach you 
at home, but here we are covered with glory. 1 have been very busy since 
the battle, attending to the burying of the dead, and taking care of the 
wounded. I could find no time to write sooner. 

I thought of nothing, while climbing the hill on " double quick " to storm 
the fort, but to keep my men in order and prevent confusion. When I saw 
my gallant boys scaling the earthworks and putting the Rebels to the bay- 
onet, and shooting them down with still greater fatality than they had us 
just before, I felt like clasping each one of our brave boys in my arms. 
Our loss was very great, but theirs much greater. After the battle was over 
it was, and still is, terrible to think of. Joel and I were side by side most 
of the time. He fought bravely, even a little rashly sometimes. He was 
not touched. I was grazed by a ball which passed through my coat-sleeve 
and glove, hitting the hilt of my sword and knocking it over my head. The 
sudden wrenching of it out of my hand, paralyzed my arm during the rest 
of the engagement. 1 was afterward standing on a log, beckoning to 
another regiment behind us to come on, when a cannon ball struck the log, 
forcing it from under me. I fell backward on a limb, injuring my back 
very much ; I cannot straighten it yet. Tell the Des Moines folks that their 
company did nobly. Capt. Mills and I were close together most of the 
time. He fought bravely. Lieuts. Ensign and Godfrey also did bravely. 
Sergt. Doty was among the bravest of the brave, and died like a hero. 
George Morse, of Farmington, also died bravely. He was one of the best 
sergeants of the regiment. We lost some noble young men, one out of 
every three, either killed or wounded. I was over the battle field to-day, 
and don't see how any of us escaped alive. ***** 

J. M. Ttjttt.e. 



CHAPTER XL 

IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 
March 7 and 8, 1862. 

At the very hour almost when Gov. Kirkwood was present- 
ing the Legislature with the bloody flag of Donelson, came the 
news of another great battle in which Iowa troops had behaved 
like heroes. The Fourth and Ninth regiments were to be 
added to Iowa's scroll of honor. The battle of Pea Ridge was 
commenced on the 7th and was won on the 8th of March, 1862. 
The rebel army under Gen. Sterling Price had been concen- 
trating and wintering at the town of Springfield, only a dozen 
miles away from the bloody battle field of Wilson's Creek. 

All Southwest Missouri was still in turmoil. Arson and 
murder were still the order of the day. The persecution of 
union citizens continued wherever a rebel force could get a 
foothold. Thousands of the loyal people of the state were 
driven to seek refuge in union camps — old men, women and 
children bearing the hardships of soldiers, and receiving food 
and shelter from the hands of strangers. Their own homes 
were deserted, their farms and crops trampled by the foot of 
the invader, and thousands of their houses given to the flames. 
The union people of Missouri verily had no place to lay their 
heads. They were miserable fugitives in their own state, and in 
sight of their own burning homes. 

The invasion of the state by Price and his rebel hordes 
brought only misery to the people. Price hoped, with the 
assistance of heavy forces from Arkansas and Texas, to again 
overrun the whole state and capture St. Louis and the capital. 
There was serious danger of his being able to do all this. Hal- 
leck, now in command of the department, with headquarters at 
St. Louis, had his hands full sending re-enforcements and aid to 

(108) 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 109 

Grant at Donelson. Every available man was being sent to the 
army on the Tennessee river, and McClellan was crying for 
western troops to be sent east to help them there. Halleck 
was almost in despair. He worked day and night; the tick of 
the telegraph at his headquarters was never silent. He was 
patriotic and courageous and competent, but he could not be in 
all places at once, nor send regiments south and east at the 
same time. While Halleck was pushing his forces on the Ten- 
nessee, Price and his cohorts might overwhelm Missouri and 
drive his very headquarters into the Mississippi river. " 1 must 
leave him to you; I must leave Price to you," wrote Halleck to 
Gen. Curtis, Iowa's first brigadier. It was early in February. 
The roads were wretchedly bad, and the winter weather excep- 
tionally severe. In selecting Gen. Curtis to repel and destroy 
Price's army, Halleck, as the sequel proved, acted wisely. Curtis 
was educated at West Point — had stood high in his class, and in 
1847 had led an Ohio regiment in the Mexican war. He served 
also on the staff of Gen. Wool. 

When the rebellion broke out, Gen. Curtis, a member of Con- 
gress from Iowa, was serving on the military committee of the 
House at Washington, and hastened at once to offer his services 
as a soldier to the President. On the 1st of June, 1861, he was 
unanimously chosen Colonel of the Second Iowa infantry. Gen-* 
Lyon telegraphed him at the regiment's rendezvous camp at 
Keokuk, on the 12th of June, to hurry his regiment to Hanni- 
bal in Missouri, "to help put down traitors everywhere." The 
order came at midnight, and by daylight the Second Iowa was 
on the boat steaming down the river. It was the first Iowa com- 
mand to cross the rebel Rubicon of the Missouri border. The 
First Iowa followed south the next day. Gen. Scott, who knew 
and appreciated the qualities of Gen. Curtis, had had him made 
brigadier general, and by mid-winter of 1861-2, Gen. Halleck 
appointed him "to take care of Price's army." 

The rebel General Price entered Springfield on Christmas day, 
and the next day Gen. Curtis commenced assembling an army at 
Rolla to meet him. It was called " The Army of the South- 
west," and consisted of four divisions, having among its com- 



110 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

manders men like Sigel and Dodge, Carr and Davis, Osterhaus 
and Herron. The famous Phil. Sheridan was its Quartermaster 
General. Osterhaus commanded the First division, Asboth the 
Second, Col. Jeff. C. Davis the Third, and Col. Carr, of the regu- 
lar army, the Fourth. Sigel led the First and Second divisions 
as a wing, and Curtis commanded the whole force. Col. Dodge, 
of the Iowa Fourth, led the First brigade of Carr's division. 
The brigade consisted of his own regiment, the Fourth, com- 
manded by Lt.-Col. Galligan, the Ninth Iowa, commanded by 
Lt.-Col. Herron, and the Thirty-fifth Illinois. Vandever, the 
Colonel of the Iowa Ninth, led the Second brigade of Carr's 
division. 

That winter in Rolla was intensely disagreeable for the sol- 
diers, the weather extremely inclement, roads scarcely passable 
and constant sickness in camp. The Fourth Iowa, the onlv 
Iowa regiment there, the Ninth coming later, suffered severely. 
There was " danger of the men of the Fourth all dying," wrote 
. a correspondent. But frequent furloughs and prospects of a 
real campaign revived the sunken spirits, and the regiment by 
the middle of January, 1862, was ready for work. 

January 14th, the advance of the army toward Springfield, 
one hundred miles away, commenced. At Lebanon the columns 
concentrated, and here a renewed forced march commenced. 
Every pound of surplus baggage was left behind. So were half 
the tents, and the sutlers, and the bands, the servants and all 
things that could interfere with quick inarching and hard 
fighting. 

" You have already endured much," said Curtis to his troops 
when they reached Lebanon. " You have moved through the 
coldest and most stormy period of a cold winter, and brought 
your trains and equipments through snow, mud, floods and frosts 
without a murmur. 1 ' But more fortitude, patience and exposure 
were now to be required. Tents, stores and all army conven- 
iences were reduced still more, and the army moved on for 
Springfield. "It looks like work," said Halleck, when he heard 
how the little army with half its supplies was pushing on in the 
dead of winter over nearly impassable roads, bridging streams 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 



Ill 




112 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

and wading through mud and storm to attack an enemy double 
its numbers on its own ground. 

Sterling Price did not wait for an army of such resolution to 
approach him, but retreated from Springfield on the 13th of 
Februarj r , just as the federal army was deploying its line of 
battle for the attack. Early on that morning a company of 
the Iowa Fourth, deployed as skirmishers, entered Springfield in 
the mist and fog just as the rebel rear guard disappeared in the 
distance. 

Curtis's army on that day numbered 12,095 men, with 50 
pieces of artillery. Price had fallen back with largely superior 
numbers, and was now to seek refuge in the passes of the Boston 
mountains, and be re-enforced by other generals with fresh 
troops and bands of Indians. 

The pursuit of the retreating Rebels through an almost deso- 
late country on the Arkansas border, was rapid and close. Here 
and there their rear, overtaken by Curtis's swift cavalry and 
infantry, would stop and fight a few minutes and again fly. 
One of these halts occurred at "Sugar Creek, 1 ' in the hills 
known as the Ozark mountains. The fight rose to the dignity 
of a battle. The firing was severe, and many were killed and 
wounded on both sides; but again, the Rebels, defeated, fell 
back. Except the First Iowa battery, no Iowa troops took part 
at Sugar Creek. 

In a deep, extensive canyon with natural fortifications, twenty 
miles farther south, and not far from Fayetteville, in Arkansas, 
Price halted his army. The place was called "Cross Hollows," 
and was considered almost impregnable. Here the rebel Gen. 
Ben. McCulloch had wintered with a large force of Texas 
troops, and now united with the army of Price, swelling his 
numbers to perhaps three times those of the army of Curtis. 

Price now wrote to the Governor of Missouri, explaining his 
retreat. He closed with the words, " Governor, we are confi- 
dent of the future." Possibly his confidence abated a little, for 
by a flank movement, " Cross Hollows" was soon in the hands 
of Curtis, and its name changed to that of " Camp Halleck." 
Bentonville and Favetteville and other neighboring villages be- 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 113 

tween the Ozark and Boston mountains, were occupied by the 
Union army, and the march south halted. 

Curtis was now 240 miles from his supplies and communica- 
tions at Rolla, and while the enemy was re-enforced and secure 
in the north foot hills of the Boston mountains in his front, 
it was safe to assume that the re-enforced rebel army might 
come out from its mountain fastness, and attack at any time an 
army occupying a position that was indeed perilous. To have a 
battle ground of his own choosing, Curtis fell back a little on 
the line of Sugar Creek, the scene of the former fight, and just 
south of a high plateau known as Pea Ridge. Gen. Van Dorn had 
now come on and taken chief command of the concentrated 
rebel forces. 

" Beware of Van Dorn, 1 ' wrote Halleck to Curtis, " he is an 
energetic officer." Curtis needed the warning, for his divisions, 
in order to obtain supplies from the country, were too far apart. 
Davis's division lay on Sugar Creek; Osterhaus's and Asboth's 
divisions were some fifteen miles in advance and to the right, at 
Bentonville, while Carr's division occupied the old rebel camp of 
" Cross Hollows," fifteen miles southeast of Bentonville. Van- 
dever's brigade, including the Ninth Iowa, was still farther in 
advance to the left at the village of Huntsville, on a reconnois- 
sance. Here on the 5th of March, Vandever was astounded by 
the intelligence from the village people that Van Dorn's army, 
40,000 strong, was rapidly marching for the right flank of Cur- 
tis's position. Curtis, too, received the intelligence from a cour- 
ier of the Fourth Iowa, and his troops were ordered to hurry 
back to positions for fighting on and back of Sugar Creek. 
Here nature afforded safe intrenchments to battle behind. Van- 
dever was ordered to march night and day to a point on Pea 
Ridge back of the creek. It was forty-one miles. The forced 
tramp, fording streams and wading through a heavy snow- 
storm and mud, was made in fourteen hours on short rations^ 
and was followed by two days of battle. 

The rebel army was really moving as reported. Sigel at Ben- 
tonville, moving with delay, as was a custom of his, got himself, 
I. W. T.— 8 



114 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

with part of his forces, surrounded, and had to cut his way out. 
It was a narrow escape, and troops had to be sent back to help 
hirn. Another hour's delay would have been fatal to him, and 
a disaster to the whole army. 

That was on March the 6th. The Rebels made demonstrations 
that afternoon as if to attack Curtis's front in its chosen and 
well defended position on Sugar Creek. Curtis prepared for 
battle. That night, in the darkness and by a forced march, Van 
Dorn threw his whole army past Curtis's right flank and moved 
down on him in line of battle from the rear. Curtis was vir- 
tually surrounded. There was no escape by his flanks, for the 
country was too uneven; none by the front, for there were 
the Boston mountains and the country of the enemy; none by 
the rear, for there was the enemy himself. It had been a piece 
of grand strategy on the part of Van Dorn, but quick resolve 
and desperate heroism were to save Curtis's army and turn what 
seemed full rebel advantage into complete rebel disaster. In the 
night Curtis learned of the rebel army at that moment passing 
his flank, and daylight found his whole line about-face and left- 
wheeled into a new position, facing the coming foe. That, too, 
was a movement as brilliant as the movement of Van Dorn, and 
to the latter ten times as surprising. This about-face and 
wheeling turned Curtis's left wing into his right. The line now- 
stood from the hamlet of Leetown, looking northwest on the 
left, to a country inn known as "Elk Horn Tavern," on the 
right. Now the Federals faced north and the Rebels faced south. 
Carr's division, with the Iowa regiments, held the extreme right, 
about Elk Horn Tavern. Sigel's two divisions held the left, 
and Jeff. C. Davis the center. The high ground on which the 
two armies now faced each other was Pea Ridge. The extreme 
wings of Curtis's irregular battle line were from three to four 
miles apart. 

Early in the forenoon of the 7th, Curtis sent a detachment 
under Osterhaus, and the Third Iowa cavalry, with other cavalry 
detachments under Bussey, to strike the rebel flank while in 
motion. The movement, had it been made with a greater 
force, properly supported, and much earlier, might have won im- 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 115 

mediate victory. It was an opportunity in war, but the force 
sent out was too small, and the infantry support was too late in 
getting up. Worse than all, just as two companies of Col. Bussey's 
cavalry, under Lt.-Col. Trimble, were advancing in columns of 
fours to attack the flank of a line of rebel cavalry passing in the 
distance, they ran into an infantry ambuscade. The surprise 
was great, for a whole rebel division was lying there in line of 
battle, and at short musket range. The two brave companies 
wheeled instantly into line and fought with their revolvers at 
short range, but the terrific fire of the rebel division stretched 
many of them dead on the ground. Trimble himself was severely 
wounded. At the same moment, and unexpectedly, a rebel cav- 
alry force charged into Bussey's right, riding clear through his 
lines. This force was, in its turn, charged and driven into the 
woods by the Third Iowa cavalry. But as other federal cavalry 
gave way behind, a flying battery was lost, and Bussey fell back 
upon the infantry coming up at this late juncture. In a few 
minutes the Third Iowa cavalry was recalled from the pursuit, 
and were led back to the main line in good order by Maj. 
Perry. They had lost heavily, and some of their men were 
butchered and scalped by a band of Indians fighting in the rebel 
column. Many men, too, of the Missouri cavalry, supporting the 
battery while the Third Iowa advanced, were slaughtered in cold 
blood by Texans, or massacred by Gen. Pike's Cherokee Indians, 
led by Lt.-Col. Quayle. " My command," says Pike, speaking of 
the capture of this battery, " consisted of about 1,000 men, all 
Indians except one squadron. They charged full in front, and 
with loud yells, took the battery/' Shortly Gen. Pike found 
" about forty of the enemy killed around the guns. Around the 
captured battery was a mass of Indians and others, in the utmost 
confusion, talking and riding this way and that, and listening 
to no orders from any one." 

" The sight was a sad one, but not devoid of satisfaction," 
wrote a semi-barbarous officer of Price's army to the Richmond 
Whig. " The Texans with their large knives had cloven skulls 
in twain, mangling brains and blood and hair. About forty- 
five men lay in a space of two or three hundred yards behind the 



116 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

battery, all save one entirely dead, and all but three, Dutchmen. 
The character of the bloody Indians, as denoted by their coun- 
tenances, betokened victory for the South." 

Quickly following this massacre at the little battery, the rebel 
infantry advanced and the general engagement opened. At the 
same moment, while Curtis was still aligning his forces, heavy 
rebel columns swept down on the Iowa, Illinois and Missouri 
regiments of Carr's division at the right. It was eleven o'clock 
in the morning, and with the attack on Carr, commenced one of 
the desperately fought battles of the war. 

When the alarm at the right was given, the chief officers of 
the army were holding a council of war at a little church in the 
woods just south of the Elk Horn Tavern. Many of the officers 
proposed retreating. '''But we have come here to fight" said Col. 
Dodge; "to do anything else would ruin us, especially in Iowa." 
Jeff. C. Davis, too, was for fighting right there. Dodge, sure of 
immediate battle, on coming to the council, had ordered his brig- 
ade to follow him to the little church. Then Curtis, seeing 
the troops in the road, and hearing the fire in the rear, ordered 
Carr to hurry them into line, back by the Elk Horn Tavern. So 
it was that the Iowa men on the right, as in the center, at Pea 
Ridge, received the first shock of the battle. In twenty minutes 
Dodge's brigade was fighting at the right of the Springfield 
road, with the Fourth Iowa infantry and a section of the First 
Iowa battery in his center, the Third Illinois cavalry on his right, 
and the Thirty-fifth Illinois infantry on his left. The rest of 
the First battery was firing from the road near the tavern. 

On the left of the Springfield road, and a little in advance of 
Dodge, Vandever's brigade of the Ninth Iowa infantry, the Du- 
buque battery, Col. Phelps's Missouri infantry, and a battalion 
of Illinois cavalry, came up. Vandever, too, was soon hotly 
engaged in a conflict that lasted till nearly sunset. 

Carr's division, with its Iowa, Illinois and Missouri regiments, 
was bearing the brunt of the heavy battle. Time and again 
great numbers of the enemy were hurled on Dodge's and Vande- 
ver's brigades. Once Vandever's men drove the rebel line back 
to the very muzzles of their cannon, and in return were over- 




GENERAL S. R. CURTIS. 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 117 

powered, and lost the captured ground. It was desperate fight- 
ing in front of Vandever for awhile. He himself was wounded, 
while Captains Drips, Bevins, Neff and Rice lay among the dead 
who were scattered everywhere over the field. By five o'clock, 
Vandever's line had been seven hours under constant fire. He 
had been forced back nearly half a mile, but his troops stub- 
bornly disputed every inch of ground. Lt.-Col. Herron, com- 
manding the Ninth Iowa, was wounded and a prisoner. He had 
led his men with a valor unexcelled. So, too, Maj. Coyl of the 
Ninth, who was shot down and compelled to leave the field. 
Captains Towner and Bull, and Lieut. Florrello M. Kelsey of the 
Ninth, and Lieutenants McClure and Wright of the Dubuque 
battery, together with 190 non-commissioned officers and pri- 
vates of the Ninth regiment and the battery, were wounded. 
Four officers and 37 men were killed.* A heavy concentration 
of the enemy's guns had forced the brigade to fall back a little 
and re-form, before sundown. 

To the right, in Dodge's brigade, where the Fourth Iowa 
infantry and the First Iowa battery were fighting, the battle 
was, if possible, even more desperate. The battery fired till its 
last round of ammunition failed and most of its guns had to leave 
the field. The Fourth Iowa infantry had skirmished in advance 
till 2 o'clock, when the enemy ceased firing a little, and a sus- 
picious silence set in. He was preparing for a more general and 
a heavier attack. Dodge fronted around a little more to the 
right, and waited his coming across an open field. The attack, 
by 6,000 infantry, came on front, left and right, and with the 
terrific firing of eight pieces of artillery, hurling grape and can- 
ister at short range. For two long hours, Dodge's command 
resisted the assaults. His battery, out of ammunition, left the 
field. A fresh one sent in was flanked and also left. 

*The following' officers were especially mentioned for gallantry: Lieut. 
Asher Riley and Capt. Carpenter and Lieut. Jones who recaptured a can- 
non; Lieutenants Tisdale and Neff, both wounded; Capt. Bull, Lieut. Baker, 
Capt. Washburn. Lieutenants Beebe, Crane, Magee, McKenzie and Claflin; 
Captains Moore, Carskaddon, Drips, Bevins and Lieut. Fellows; also Capt. 
Hayden of the Dubuque battery. Lieutenants Wright and Bradley were men- 
tioned by the commander of the battery, for bravery. The sergeants and 
corporals of the battery received just praise. Corporal Rowles was shot in 
both legs while spiking the last gun of the captured battery. 



118 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Once, Dodge's brigade ceased firing in order to learn the new 
position of the Rebels. Instantly, mistaking the cause of the, 
silence, the enemy charged clear up to his lines, when sudden 
volleys poured into their faces drove them back in confusion. 
Fresh regiments immediately filled their places. The firing of 
the enemy grew more terrific, and shortly his lines began to 
envelop Dodge's flanks. Vandever's Second brigade having 
already fallen back, Dodge was now left to contend alone against 
some 12,000 Rebels in his front and on his flanks. It was about 
sundown. Dodge's men had fought till they were out of 
ammunition, and, with a fresh rebel battery on the left enfila- 
ding their line, there was nothing to do but fall back. This 
was done in perfect order, the men in straight lines, and dressed 
on their colors, though the enemy followed close behind with 
the batteries and infantry. Once the union line halted and 
unexpectedly poured a last farewell volley into the pursuers, that 
made them fly in confusion. 

Just then the general in charge came up with re-enforce menis 
and seeing the quiet battle line moving to the rear for ammuni- 
tion, ordered it to about-face and charge the enemy with naked 
bayonets. The command was quickly obeyed. The line charged 
back over a field, but the enemy was gone. 

Darkness coming on, Dodge's brigade, having lost nearly one- 
third of its numbers, killed or wounded, fell back for a moment- 
ary rest. They had fought largely superior numbers for nearly 
nine hours. Once, at noon, Dodge had been ordered to slowly 
retreat. He sent back word that if he did, the day was lost. If 
allowed to, he could and would, hold his position. So the fight 
went on. The re-enforcements, that came to the right of the 
battle field so late, were unablo to drive back the rebel lines that 
had now penetrated close up to the Elk Horn Tavern, and the 
weary union troops bivouacked among the dead and wounded, 
and feared the morrow. Dodge's men were taken back into 
camp just long enough to replenish their ammunition and clean 
their guns. By midnight they were again in position at the 
front as a reserve to the division of Davis, and from midnight 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 119 

till morning the exhausted men stood shivering in the cold 
night air without fires or food. 

At the center of the union army also, the battle had raged 
furiously from before noon till about three o'clock. There had 
been furious onslaughts against Davis's division near to Leetown. 
The rebel commanders, Mcintosh, Ben. McCulloch and Slack, 
were all killed at this point, leading charges against the union 
lines. Their forces were driven back. Sigel, on the left, had 
not been engaged, and a part of his troops ought to have been 
sent earlier to Carr's assistance on the right. Sigel's position 
was known to have no enemy near it at two o'clock, and yet it 
was five o'clock before any of his forces arrived on the right, 
Carr's division in the meantime struggling against fearful odds. 

That was a gloomy night for the union army encamped about 
Pea Ridge. The day had ended in reverses on the right, and the 
enemy was in their rear. Few slept, and all the night new dis- 
positions were being made for the morning. 

At sunrise of the 8th, the First Iowa battery opened fire on the 
batteries of the enemy near to Elk Horn Tavern. The new 
union battle line, formed in the night, with Sigel on the left 
and all facing north and east, soon became hotly engaged. This 
was preceded by an artillery duel of great ferocity. Once in the 
morning the division of Davis, enfiladed by a severe fire, fell 
back on Dodge's brigade, causing confusion to both lines. It was 
a perilous moment. Dodge's brigade, however, was soon changed 
in position, and was again put on the extreme right. Sigel was 
not quite in position, and Curtis, while waiting on him, anx- 
iously asked Dodge what, in his opinion, would be best to do 
should the enemy not yield? Practically, the union army was 
surrounded. " Put my command at the head," said Dodge, " and 
we will cut out to the west. The enemy is certainly weak in 
that direction." " That is what we will do," said Curtis. The 
emergency did not come. Soon Sigel's lines were ready, and 
advanced, fiercely driving the rebel right from strong positions. 
The fire of artillery became terrific. The Rebels seeming to 
weaken a little, Curtis ordered a general charge along the whole 



120 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

line. In half an hour the rebel army was flying in all direc- 
tions to the mountains, and Pea Ridge was won. 

Curtis's victorious army camped on the battle field, and soon 
moved farther south. The enemy was so disorganized and scat- 
tered in the deep ravines and mountains, that pursuit was almost 
useless. The rebellion, west of the Mississippi river, nearly 
• perished by the blow. The Rebels lost probably 4,000 or 
5,000 men. The Union loss was 1,384, of whom 203 were 
killed and nearly 1,000 wounded, with a few missing. In 
Dodge's brigade, every single field officer was disabled, and only 
two officers were left in the battery. The Fourth Iowa infantry 
lost 160 men. Among its dead were Lieutenants Robert S. Jack- 
son and J. T. Chittenden. Captains E. G. Burgan, Geo. Burton 
and Lieutenants F. Teal, Geo. A. Robinson and Lyman Parcher, 
and Adjutant, later Gen. J. A. Williamson, were wounded, as was 
Lt.-Col. Galligan.* The Ninth Iowa infantry lost 218 men, the 
Third Iowa cavalry 50 men, the First Iowa battery 17 men, and 
the Third Iowa battery 22. The total loss of the division was 
682, nearly all killed or wounded. Carr and Dodge were both 
wounded, the latter severely. Three horses were killed under 
Dodge, and one wounded. One of his horses was struck by 
twenty rifle balls. 

In a few days Col. Dodge was made brigadier general for 
gallantry at Pea Ridge. It was the first promotion after the 
battle. All the other commanding colonels were shortly pro- 
moted and Curtis was made a major general, as was also Sigel. 
" It was a most glorious victory," telegraphed Gen. Halleck to 
Gen. McClellan on receiving the news of the battle. To the 



*The following additional names were mentioned in general reports, for 
gallantry at Pea Ridge: Capt. H. H. Griffiths, Lieutenants J. A. William- 
son, V. J. David, J. W. Bell (Adjutant's clerk), Color Sergt. T. Teil, Lieut. 
L. Shields (aide to Gen. Carr), Lieutenants O. A. Bowen and John E. Phelps 
(acting aides). Lieut. Wright, of the Dubuque battery; Maj. Coyl, Ninth 
infantry; Corp. Leebert, a gallant artillery- man, and Capt. Jones, First Iowa 
battery, wounded. Gen. Curtis commended all his division and brigade 
commanders, and said: " To do justice to all in this battle, I would have to 
spread before you most of the rolls of this army." 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 121 

soldiers of Curtis' army he wrote: u A grateful country will 
honor you/'* 

*This note to Gov. Kirkwood, written on the battle field by Col. Dodge, 
gives a graphic picture of the fight as seen by a leader, who, on that day, was 
himself, " bravest of the brave : " 

Pea Ridge Battle Ground, March 10th, 1862. 

Gov. S. J. Kirkwood: We have fought a hard battle here, lasting two 
days ; the first day's fight was terrible ; it was mostly with the Fourth division, 
composed of Fourth and Ninth Iowa infantry, First and Second Iowa bat- 
teries, Thirty-fifth Illinois and Twenty-fifth Missouri. The loss in the 
division was 600 killed and wounded, mostly among the Iowa troops; they 
saved the day and made the victory the next morning easy; this division 
was opposed to Generals Price, Rains and Mcintosh, with 15,000 infantry 
and 18 pieces of artillery. The Fourth division had only some 4,000 engaged, 
while our other forces were fighting McCullough, and the re-enforcements 
sent to us went to the First division, but we held the ground, whipped the 
enemy and Iowa got the glory of the fight. The Fourth Iowa lost 160 out 
of 548 engaged; Ninth Iowa lost 220 out of 700 engaged; First Iowa bat- 
tery lost 16 out of 110 engaged, and Third Iowa battery lost 18 out of 140 
engaged; they also lost 3 of their pieces. The second day we attacked early 
in the morning with our entire army, driving everything before us, and the 
enemy fled in all directions in great confusion, leaving several pieces of artil- 
lery, great quantities of small arms and at least 500 prisoners. Gen. Van 
Dorn attacked with 40,000 infantry and 70 pieces of artillery; we had 12,000, 
and 50 pieces of artillery. Ihe fighting was terrible, especially among our 
troops. The Fourth Iowa fought all day steadily, and did not give an inch, 
although they had at one time concentrated upon them 12 pieces of artillery 
and six regiments of infantry; our ammunition gave out at night; when we 
fixed bayonets and charged across the field the enemy did not dare again 
meet us. It was a trying time for the Fourth ; no ammunition and still under 
a galling fire. Every one gives great credit to the Iowa troops. No man 
from Iowa flinched. I saw some troops run; one or two parts of regiments 
came to our support, but fell back at the first fire. In my brigade there was 
not a field officer except one but was wounded. Lt.-Col. Herron, of Ninth 
Iowa, in Vandever's brigade, was wounded and taken prisoner. Our Iowa 
batteries did noble service; mine had two officers wounded in the morning. 
The Third Iowa cavalry suffered terribly in a charge ; had 47 killed. They 
were put into it by a Dutchman, and out of all military usage. Lt.-Col. 
Trumbull was severely wounded in the charge. They had very few wounded ; 
a large part of my wounded was from canister and grape ; those of the Ninth 
Iowa from bullets. I was better protected from bullets, though under a 
hotter fire than any of them. I posted my men behind an open field and 
made the enemy cross it to reach us. They poured their grape and canister 
from 12 to 18 guns into us all the time, but could not get them to bear as 
well as on the Ninth Iowa. I never saw men fight as the Iowa troops did. 
I have sent a list of the killed and wounded to Adjt. Gen. Baker to have it 
published. A large number of my wounded will die; several have already, 
and it is impossible to get any accommodation; many lay on the field all 
night. G. M. Dodge, 

Colonel Fourth Iowa Infantry. 



OHAPTEE XII. 

IOWA AT SHILOH. 
April 6-7, 1862. 

"I must save this army," were the first words of Gen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston, at Nashville, when he heard of the loss of 
Donelson. To save it, he marched it and many other troops to 
Corinth, the best strategic point of the Southwest. When Shi- 
loh was lost afterward, and with it the life of the brave com- 
mander, Corinth, virtually, was lost also. 

Shiloh became in many senses the most remarkable battle of 
the war. It was a great battle, and of great consequences. Iowa 
had especial reasons for pride in her part of the victory there. 
Eleven full regiments from the state took part in the conflict. 
Some of them fought desperately in positions that turned the 
tide of battle and won imperishable renown for men and com- 
manders. The closer the history of the battle is examined, the 
more accented appears the heroism of Iowa troops at Shiloh. 
Some of Iowa's oldest and best regiments were there, and there 
were Iowa regiments in the battle whose men had never loaded 
a musket before in their lives. They were made soldiers in a 
day. 

It had never been the intention of the union generals to fight 
a battle at Shiloh, nor even to conduct a great campaign in the 
neighborhood. On the fall of Donelsou, an expedition up the 
Tennessee river in force was determined on. It was intended 
only for the destruction of railroads and bridges west of the 
river. Further plans were left to circumstance. Just after 
Donelson, Grant lost his command, owing to an apparent neg- 
lect of orders as to reports. Halleck had, in a choleric moment, 
complained of him to the authorities at Washington, and in a 

(122) 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 123 

few days the country witnessed the humiliating spectacle of the 
hero of Donelson virtually under arrest. It was by the order 
of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan. 

The result was, Gen. Chas. F. Smith was sent in command of 
Grant's troops and the expedition up the Tennessee. Smith 
directed the army to Pittsburg Landing, putting the troops off, 
as fast as they arrived by the transports, on the west side of the 
river, and facing the enemy twenty miles away at Corinth. 
Shortly, explanations arrived at Washington as to the case of 
Gen. Grant. He was released from arrest and ordered to resume 
the command of the army on the Tennessee. He reached the 
rendezvous of the troops on the 17th of March, and commenced 
organizing the army for a campaign on Corinth. 

Albert Sidney Johnston's concentration of his large army at 
Corinth had changed the plans of Gen. Halleck, who was direct- 
ing the armies of the West from his headquarters in St. Louis. 
The ''expedition"" up the Tennessee was changed into a regular 
campaign, and it speedily became the opinion of Gen. Halleck 
that one of the great battles of the war was approaching, and 
would be fought at or near Corinth. 

The army under Gen. Grant was to be re-enforced accordingly, 
and Gen. Buell, commanding the army of the Ohio at Nashville, 
was ordered to march at once across the country and join Grant 
on the Tennessee. Buell was in no hurry to help a rival com- 
mander. His army was in perfect marching condition — fresh 
and well supplied — but he leisurely came along at the rate of 
only twelve miles a day. It was apparently all one to Gen. Buell 
that rebel troops were concentrating in front of Grant from 
every quarter of the South and West.* 

Pittsburg Landing is on the west, or left bank of the Tennes- 
see river, at a point twenty miles north of Corinth. The Ten- 
Howard the close of Buell's leisurely march, Gen. Grant wrote him that he 
need not hurry; but it was for the reason that the transpoits were then 
absent for a day or two; hence an army could not be ferried over till their 
return. Had Buell marched rapidly in the beginning, he could have been 
ferried over days before. Grant would have advanced with the combined 
forces, defeated the Rebels at Corinth, and the battle of Shiloh never would 
have been fought. When Buell first received orders to march his army to 
join Grant, he wished to take it away around by water. Had Halleck per- 
mitted this, Buell would not have been at Shiloh at all. 



124 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

nessee here runs north, while the union army landed on the left 
bank and faced south, or up the river. Savannah, where Gen. 
Grant had his headquarters, is nine miles down the river, and 
Crump's Landing, where Wallace's division landed, is a little 
above Savannah. 

The position chosen for the army in front of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, is by nature a strong one. The troops lay in five divisions, 
at unequal distances from the river, their lines looking south 
and southwest. On their left was the Tennessee river and 
behind them Snake Creek — a difficult stream to cross, while Owl 
Creek, nearly parallel to the river, protected their right. The 
army could only be attacked from its direct front. The existence 
of these creeks or natural defenses made intrenchments appar- 
ently unnecessary, the more so as the army was only awaiting 
the arrival of Buell's forces before moving forward on Corinth ; 
for Shiloh was selected as a camp — not as a battle ground. 

The federal line was about four miles long, reaching from 
Owl Creek on the right, across to the river on the left. Sher- 
man's division held the right and right center, with McClernand's 
division to his left. To the left of McClernand was the division 
of Prentiss, while to the extreme left, holding the ford of Lick 
Creek, was Stuart's brigade, a detachment sent around from Sher- 
man's division. The division of Gen. W. H. L. Wallace lay 
three-quarters of a mile from the landing, in reserve. Near it, 
also in reserve, lay the division of Gen. Hurlbut. Gen. Lew. 
Wallace's division remained at Crump's Landing, five miles down 
the river. 

Shiloh Church, the little log house so soon to become famous, 
stood at the Corinth roadside, three miles from the river, and in 
the center of Sherman's line. The division commanded by Gen. 
W. H. L. Wallace belonged properly to Gen. C. F. Smith, who 
ha$ so recently been in command of the army. Smith now lay 
sick and dying a few miles down the river, and in hearing dis- 
tance of the battle he had expected to direct. That night, too, 
of April 6th, saw W. H. L. Wallace, the division's new com- 
mander, dead in battle. His was a pathetic case. That morn- 
ing, just as the drums sounded the alarm, Gen. Wallace was 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 



125 



BATTLE OF SHILOH. 

REFERENCES. 

Position of Major-General Grant's forces on the morning of April 6ih. E, B 

Position of Major-Generals Grant's and Buell's forces, evening April 6th. ttZZMZSZZZl 
Position of Major-Generals Grant and Buell on the morning of April 7th. l^^^hbb 
Position of Major-Generals Grant and Buell on evening of April 7th. """ iin.nmnT'M-i 




126 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

dressing to go down to the steamer and meet his wife, who had 
just come from the North to visit him. He could not see her — 
duty called him immediately to the front — and his dead body 
was brought to her the next morning. 

W. H. L. Wallace's division contained five regiments of Iowa 
soldiers — the Second, Seventh, Eighth, Twelfth and Fourteenth, 
brigaded together (except the Eighth, which belonged to 
Sweeny's brigade), and commanded by Gen. J. M. Tuttle. Most 
of them had been together at Donelson, and now a fiercer day 
awaited them. The other Iowa regiments present in the army 
were in the divisions of Hurlbut, Prentiss, Sherman and McCler- 
nand. 

That a great battle was anticipated at Shiloh so soon cannot be 
asserted ; yet every man in the army knew that a strong enemy was 
at the front and not far away. The union army on the morning of 
April 6th, was as ready for battle as it was possible for a great 
mob of inexperienced, untrained, undisciplined soldiers to be. A 
third of that army had never fired a gun in battle. Whole regi- 
ments had never loaded a musket till that morning. Many had 
never seen their commanders. Some had no commanders above 
colonels and captains, and acted in the battle independent of 
division or brigade. Nobody was to blame for all this. The 
army was simply in the chrysalis state — a great crowd of patrio- 
tic gentlemen, not prepared for battle. 

The battle came, all the same, and many were surprised — but 
their surprise was only in their realization of not being drilled 
and ready. They were in line, most of them, when the shock 
came — heroic enough and all that; but they were not soldiers. 
Many were driven back with the first volleys fired; some scarcely 
waited for that, but hearing the awful cannon for the first time 
in their lives, started for the rear. It was easier to call the acci- 
dent a surprise than to admit it a defeat. A surprise might 
excuse bad shooting and quick running; but the fact remained 
that a large part of the union army had been outmatched that 
Sunday, and fairly whipped. Fuller examination proves that 
in most instances the federal regiments fired first, and in no 
instance did the Rebels advance without finding a line of battle 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 127 

ready to receive them. Rebel testimony admits and proves this. 
Most of those battle lines were driven back by good, hard fight- 
ing, and not by any surprise. 

Sherman may be said to have held the advance of the union 
lines, and closest examination shows his division to have been 
well posted behind a little creek, with strong outposts and par- 
ties constantly reconnoitering in his front. The Sixth Iowa, 
farthest advanced of any of his forces at his right, was not only 
well posted, but had made intrenchments. Its officers were vigi- 
lant, and from tree tops near them, had seen the enemy's camps 
in the distance, the day before the battle. That night they slept 
under arms. 

"The enemy gave us no time to discuss the question of attack ," 
said Gen. Bragg in his report. " Within less than a mile after 
moving/' he adds, " the enemy was encountered in force in the 
encampments of his advanced positions." " In a mile or more," 
he continues, " we encountered him in strong force almost along 
the entire line.'" The Federals then had not been surprised. 
Preparations for the enemy's reception were complete. W. H. 
L. Wallace's division was not hurried to the front until late. 
It was nine o'clock when it fired its first shot, yet almost every 
soldier in the command knew the firing at the front had been 
going on since daylight. Bragg's report shows that on the 
morning of the 6th of April no surprise by the Rebels was pro- 
posed or even possible. "Already at seven o'clock," he says, u my 
line was unequal to the work before it." The rebel Gen- 
Hardee, emphasizes the matter by saying, "My own forces were 
attacked at early dawn.''' 1 Beauregard said, the day before the 
battle, that " a surprise of the Federals was now impossible." 
Bad weather had delayed the Rebels too long, and he opposed 
going on with the battle. Beauregard's counsels did not pre- 
vail, and the rebel army advanced and fought, though on a plan 
sketched out by Beauregard on bits of paper and backs of envel- 
opes, one night in bed at Corinth. 

Strong reconnoissances, with fighting, the day before, on the 
part of Sherman, convinced that general that the Rebels in their 
advance at his front were only making demonstrations. Gen. 



128 IOWA II* WAR TIMES. 

Grant shared the belief, yet both tried to prepare for the emer- 
gency of battle. To Gen. Lew Wallace, special instructions of 
caution were sent, for it was sensible to suppose that the enemy 
would strike at that detached division, if anywhere. Gen. Grant 
anticipated no great battle away from the fortifications of Cor- 
inth. "I have scarcely the faintest idea of a general attack 
being made upon us, but will be prepared, should such a thine/ 
take place" he telegraphed to Halleck on the eve of the battle. 
Gen. W. H. L. Wallace was ordered to re-enforce Gen. Lew. 
Wallace in case of an attack, and Sherman was ordered not only 
to keep a " sharp look-out," but in case of an attack on Gen. 
Lew. Wallace, to send two divisions, his own and Hurlbut's, to 
his aid. Grant's own words to Sherman, in his letter two nights 
before the battle were, " It is best to be prepared." 

The Rebels were bolder and more reckless than Grant believed 
them. In this, he and Sherman and every other man with mili- 
tary knowledge of the situation, was surprised. They left their 
safe breastworks, and desperately — recklessly, charged his imme- 
diate front, and sacrificed their soldiers on his strongest quarter. 
In this sense only, Shiloh was a surprise — surprise at the hazard 
the Rebels took. Un military recklessness is always a surprise. 
Had Wallace or Buell come up, or had Grant had intrenchments 
thrown up that Saturday night, the rebel army would have suf- 
fered an awful defeat. 

When the battle did commence at the front, that early Sunday 
morning, the alarm sounded throughout the entire union camp. 
In W. H. L. Wallace's division, at the rear, the men were pre- 
paring for Sunday morning's inspection of arms and accoutre- 
ments. It was nine o'clock before the continued roar of the 
cannon convinced the officers of the reserve that there was 
danger at the front — and yet, firing had been going on since day- 
light. Sherman knew it, and was in the thickest of the battle. 
Grant, miles away, knew it, and was hurrying to the scene. And 
yet, colonels and captains and many closest to the awful trag- 
edy going on in their front, " were surprised." They would 
have been surprised had they been attacked a month later. 

Gen. Tuttle, commanding the brigade with the Second, 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 129 

Seventh, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa regiments, was ill in bed 
from a hurt received at Donelson.* " I was," says he, " awak- 
ened by the entrance of my servant, when hearing the sound of 
firing in the distance, I sent for my adjutant who informed me 
that it had been going on since daylight. I immediately ordered 
the regiment under arms, and mounting my horse, rode to Gen. 
Wallace's quarters. He was dressing to go down to the steamer 
to meet his wife, who had just arrived. Poor fellow, he never 
saw her more! I was, at my suggestion, directed to march my 
brigade out on the Corinth road, the remainder of the division 
to follow under Wallace at once. I marched till I came to the 
forks of the Corinth and Hamburg roads, passing scores of 
frightened fugitives running to the rear. Passing the road 
forks, the stream of fugitives ceased, and we marched on toward 
Shiloh Church. As the main Corinth road shortly ran down 
through a ravine, where 1 could have no view in any direction, I 
led the brigade along an old road on high ground to the left, 
and was shortly joined by Maj. Cavender, with two batteries of 
Missouri artillery. Ahead of us lay a small cleared field with 
some few cabins, and at the edge of that field I halted the col- 
umn. Maj. Cavender and I rode forward to reconnoitre, and at 
that moment we saw a line of bayonets glinting in the morning 
sun. Owing to the formation of the ground, we could scarcely 
see the men coming, or tell if they were friends or foes. In a 
few minutes, the appearance of a group of rebel officers in the 
woods relieved us of all doubt. 

" ' We are in for it now,' I said to the Major. 1 1 will form 
my line of battle. Bring up your guns and you can get a rak- 
ing fire across the field.' The Rebels had seen us, and at once 
wheeled their guns into battery and formed their line. I, too, 
instantly deployed my line, taking advantage of an old washed 
out road that ran at right angles to the main road to Corinth, as 
well as to the one I was then on, three hundred yards to the left. 

*The author is under special obligations to Col. Shaw of the Fourteenth, 
Col. Bell of the Eighth, and to Glen. Tuttle, all participants in the battle at 
the center, for much special and important information written for him as 
to the position and fighting of certain Iowa regiments at Shiloh. 

I. W. T.— 9 



130 IOWA IH WiJJ TIMES. 

This worn, old road, three feet deep, made a natural breastwork, 
and farther left I had the advantage of a low ridge and a dense 
thicket. My line of battle, when formed, extended for half a 
mile nearly east and west, and I had three thousand bayonets.* 
I placed the Second Iowa to my right, the Seventh, Twelfth and 
Fourteenth in successive order toward my left, and extending 
into the woods, with the thicket in front. Cavender placed his 
batteries a little to the rear anc ! 'lit of my center. The lines 
of the enemy extended beyond V ">wn, both right and left. 
They came on in three distinct lines, and in splendid array, from 
the woods beyond the field. 1 ' 

It was a splendid sight, but Tuttle felt that his little brigade, 
with unsupported flanks, stood between the enemy and the land- 
ing. It was a trying moment. On the Rebels came. Cavender's 
batteries opened the ball, and Tuttle's soldiers of the Twelfth 
and Fourteenth Iowa, against whose line this first charge was 
made, poured a galling fire from out their breastworks of the old 
road and from the woods at their left, driving the assailants in 
disorder. 

Heedless of the death that awaited them, the enemy pressed 
forward again over the field, and a second onslaught was made — 
more protracted, more desperate than the first, and the lines 
came nearer. From their natural breastworks in the road, the 
men at the right easily repulsed the assault, and the Twelfth 
and Fourteenth Iowa, more in the woods on the left, and some- 
what less protected, poured in a storm of bullets that sent the 
assailers reeling. Once, Shaw discovered a large force moving 
on his left, and overlapping it. The situation became at once 
critical. A couple of brass six-pounders were hurried to his relief, 
but, best of all, another Iowa regiment made its appearance at the 
front. It was the noble Eighth, led by Col. Geddes, a brave man 
and an experienced soldier. His command at once formed on 
Shaw's left with its own left thrown back a little to the rear. 
It was scarcely in position when the enemy made a tremendous 

*The Eighth Iowa, under Col. Geddes. the fighting Scotchman, had been 
ordered to the support of Tuttle's brigade, at its left, but it was not a part 
of his command. It fought independently throughout the engagement. 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 131 

charge on the part of the line now held by the Eighth, Twelfth 
and Fourteenth regiments. Bravely these Iowa regiments stood 
their ground and hurled back the desperate assault. But again 
it came — and again charge after charge was made, and only to 
meet destruction from the deadly line that stood there like a 
veritable wall of fire. 

Tired of assaulting and tired of repulsing, the enemy at this 
part of the line at last with j p beyond the range of the union 
muskets. A little pause f 4 ved, when Geddes moved his regi- 
ment by flank to a new position to his left and front, joining 
the extreme right of Gen. Prentiss's division. After an hours 
severe fighting here, Gen. Prentiss put a most destructive bat- 
tery in front of the Eighth Iowa center, with instructions to 
defend it to the last. As the guns were creating great havoc in 
the rebel line, their capture became an absolute necessity, and 
some terrific charges were made for this purpose. In one of the 
dreadful assaults that followed, the enemy charged up to the 
very muzzles of the guns, causing the center of the line to fall 
back for a moment, while the battery fell into the rebel hands. 
It was a furious fight; but closing up and dashing forward, the 
captured cannon were retaken and sent safely to the rear. In 
the fierce struggle, the Eighth regiment lost 100 men, while 
almost every man and horse of the battery had been killed. 

The Eighth's gallantry was to be still further tried, for 
shortly the Rebels moved on them from three directions in a 
heavy attack. With a last struggle, with 200 men dead and 
wounded, and after ten hours of hard fighting, the brave line, 
now nearly surrounded, attempted to retire. It was too late — 
a division of Rebels was across its path, and the heroes of the 
awful charge must either surrender or be annihilated. It 
was six o'clock that evening when one of the bravest and best 
regiments at Shiloh laid down its arms. In the meantime, the 
Twelfth, Fourteenth, Second and Seventh Iowa had been gal- 
lantly sustaining their line, never losing a foot of ground until 
ordered to retire. The hard fighting of the Eighth, Twelfth and 
Fourteenth had for the time saved the left flank of the position. 
Tuttle's right was still unprotected as far as could be seen 



132 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

through the woods, and the fierce sound of battle farther on, 
showed that the divisions of McClernand and Sherman, though 
desperately fighting, were being overpowered and driven back. 

Soon other and still more desperate assaults followed along 
the line. For two hours and a half the Rebels charged with 
unabated force. " They came so close we heard their voices, 1 ' 
said the men of the Iowa regiments, " and we saw them falling 
under the terrific fire, while our own soldiers from left to right 
of that brigade, were being shot down by the scores." Six 
whole rebel brigades, and one regiment of a seventh brigade, 
were hurled against the position during the day — and they were • 
the best troops of the South. Generals Hindman and Cheatham, 
and Gibson and Anderson, leading six brigades and a part of 
Pond's, dashed against the Iowa regiments, only to be destroyed. 
The position and the defense were too strong. All honor to the 
brave men who stood all that day between Grant's army and 
complete disaster. Many of Iowa's heroes fell that da}" — but the 
sight of their dead only strengthened the arms of the living, and 
fired their hearts to continued valor. At four o'clock the 
Rebels made a last terrific assault on them with several brigades 
in column. Massed as they were, advancing under a withering 
storm of minieball, grapnell and shell, the slaughter was terri- 
ble, and the assaulting lines gave way in dismay. 

At four and a half o'clock, Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, the com- 
mander of the division, rode to the front to examine the situa- 
tion. In five minutes time came the word that the Rebels were 
flanking Tuttle on the right. The awful charges that had been 
made to turn Tuttle's left had been repulsed by the most terri- 
ble fighting for hours, on the part of the Eighth, Twelfth and 
Fourteenth Iowa, and other regiments. Now the woods were 
full of the enemy who, under Polk, had passed through the 
unguarded space at the right. Many were already to the Union 
rear, and the brave men who had so gallantly defended their 
position were rapidly being surrounded. Wallace saw the criti- 
cal position. From three directions, came whistling the musket 
balls of the enemy — from front, flank and rear. 

Wallace hurriedly concluded to order the regiments to cut 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 133 

their way out. No other course was possible. Tuttle sent offi- 
cers to the commanders of the Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa to 
order them to about face and follow after the Second and Seventh, 
while he and Wallace, at the head of the two latter regiments, 
moved by the flank for the Corinth road. In five minutes, Wal- 
lace was shot from his horse, and men of the Second and 
Seventh were falling from the enfilading fire. But, shooting as 
they marched, they retreated through the rebel line behind, and 
escaped with little loss. 

The Twelfth, the Fourteenth and the Eighth Iowa, and parts 
of Prentiss's division, still fought on, and more desperately now 
than ever. The rebel lines had closed in behind Tuttle's men 
as they fought through, and Colonels Shaw, Geddes and Woods' 
with their brave commands, were left to battle as they could, and 
were captured by sundown. Better fighting had not been done 
on the Shiloh battle field than by these captured regiments.* 

The officers sent to order the retreat never reached them, 
though probably if they had, a rescue was now impossible. It 
was a desperate situation for the battle-scarred regiments left 
behind, to fight, alone, the flower of the whole rebel army. 
Bravely and desperately they clung to their ground and fought, 
and while they fought, Grant's new line was forming at the rear 
a wall of cannon and muskets that would at last save the army 
from destruction. Had the Iowa men given away earlier, the 
army would have been gone, and Shiloh lost. 

It was sundown, and the men of the Eighth, the Twelfth and 
the Fourteenth Iowa regiments that had stood so like a wall of 
fire between the union army and destruction, now surrendered 
and were marched into captivity. But, as they marched, they 
heard the battle on Webster's new liae, which their sacrifices 
and their heroism had made possible, and the last gun that 
echoed across the fields and woods that night in the darkness, 
told them their persistent fighting had saved the day. 

Three hundred and thirty-six brave officers and men of the 
Eighth Iowa went from Shiloh into horrible southern prisons — 

*Just after the Second and Seventh escaped, the Rebels opened a tremen- 
dous tire of artillery on the position — "the heaviest I ever heard," wrote 
Col. Shaw. 



134 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

while 165 of their comrades were dead, mangled or missing, 
there on the battle field.* It was the last regiment to leave the 
front that day. Col. Geddes was shot in the leg, and Maj. 
Andrews severely in the head. Capt. William F. Hogin was 
killed, and Captains Henry H. Benson and Palmer, and Lieu- 
tenants Hays, Tiehenor, Craigie and Wells, wounded. Cap- 
tains Cleveland, Stubbs, Benson, HcCormack, Bell, Kelsey. 
Geddes, and Lieut. Muhs, and Lt.-Col. Ferguson and Maj. 
Andrews were all deservedly mentioned for gallantry. 

For ten hours the regiment had held its dangerous position, 
and without protection of any kind, had fought desperately. 
Had Tuttle's flank been turned — had the Eighth Iowa yielded, 
the field there would have been lost. A couple of brass six- 
pounders taken to the left by Shaw, and the gallantry of the 
Iowa regiments, did indeed save the position. 

The brave Twelfth paid the penalty of its devotion to duty 
with a loss of one 127 of its members, 24 of whom lay dead; 
this out of a total of only 447 in action. The remainder were 
captured. Among the killed were Lieutenants Ferguson and 
Moir — brave officers. 

Captains Earle, Warner, Stibbs, Haddock, Van Duzee and 
Townsley, were mentioned for gallantry in the battle; so, too, 
were Adjt. Duncan and Quartermaster Dorr. Capt. Edgington 
gallantly led the regiment after the wounding of Col. Woods, 
and surrendered it only when further resistance would mean a 
useless sacrifice of life. 

The loss of the Fourteenth regiment was 47 killed and 
wounded, and 236 captured,f though the exact losses of this and 

*Col. Shaw, of the Fourteenth Iowa, stated publicly in Des Moines that 
the hard fighting in front of the Eighth Iowa was the severest of the day. 
" Tuttles brigade oives its salvation to the Eighth Iowa" declared Col. 
Shaw. 

fThe lo&ses in killed and wounded of these captured Iowa regiments may 
never be exactly known. Many of the captured were at the same time 
wounded, and coming from the prison long months afterward, their wounds 
healed, and almost forgotten, they neglected reporting themselves as having 
been wounded at all. Add to this the capture of the officers, the impossibility of 
reports at the time, the absence of company returns long afterward, and the 
incorrectness of the table of losses in the Adjutant General's report is easily 
accounted for. This is especially true of the Twelfth regiment, whose losses 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 135 

the other captured regiments will probably never be accurately 
known. Many of the captured were wounded. 

Col. Shaw was taken to prison with his regiment, as was Col. 
Geddes, of the Eighth Iowa, though wounded. Col. Woods, of 
the Twelfth, was wounded three times, captured and left on the 
battle field, where he was recovered the next day. 

The two escaping regiments, the Second and Seventh Iowa, 
fought on toward the river, and as they approached the forks of 
the Hamburg and Corinth road, ran into a line of Rebels formed 
across their way. Instantly the Second regiment was deployed 
into line, and behind it, the Seventh. The two then charged 
through the Rebels with a cheer. Tuttle now halted, and was 
joined by Col. Crocker with the Thirteenth Iowa, which had 
been fighting elsewhere. A new line was formed, facing the 
front, while firing was still going on, out where the Eighth, 
Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa were yet fighting. An advance 
for their rescue was ordered by Tuttle, but the line had scarcely 
begun to move when the firing ceased. The three regiments 
had surrendered. 

It was now sundown. A little skirmishing with the enemy's 
line that had followed it back, and what was left of Tuttle's 
brigade formed a new front in line with many others, to sup- 
port the batteries that Col. Webster, the chief of staff, had 
massed against the enemy's last charge of the day. The Rebels 
came on in heavy lines and with desperation, but the awful vol- 
leys of grape, canister and round shot from the batteries and 
the gunboats, sent them reeling into the darkness now about to 
envelop them. The first day of Shiloh was done. 

The Second Iowa was led in the fight by Lt.-Col. Baker, and 
holding the right of Tuttle's brigade, suffered severely. Capt. 

were far above the number officially reported. Making the same allowance 
for the Eighth and Fourteenth, the number of casualties at Shiloh would be 
proven much higher than has ever been given. Col. Shaw is of the opinion 
that at least ten might be added to the official report of wounded in the 
Fourteenth Iowa. The adjutant general's report gives but 50 killed and 
wounded in the Twelfth Iowa. The estimate given in the text is from a 
report by Lt.-Col. Edgington of the Twelfth, read at the reunion of the 
|* Hornets' Nest Brigade," at Des Moines, in October, 1887. It is based on 
information drawn from surviving members of the companies of the regi- 
ment. 



136 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

Littler had an arm shot off, and Captains Wilkins, Mills, Moore 
and Cox (the latter, the next day), were also wounded. 

The brave Lieut. William Brawner was killed. Sixty-two of 
the privates were either killed or wounded.* 

The Seventh regiment was commanded in the fight of the 
first day by Lt.-Col. Parrott, and on the second day by Major 
Elliott W. Rice; both brave men and excellent officers. It had 10 
killed, 17 wounded and 6 missing. Lieut. Dillon was among 
the killed. 

On the right and left, and at other points of the union line 
on that awful day, other Iowa regiments were also fighting with 
a valor that was to add lustre to the laurels of the state. 

Braver fighting was not done at Shiloh than was done by the 
Third Iowa infantry. It formed the right of the First brigade 
of Gen. Hurlbut's division. Its Colonel, Williams, was in com- 
mand of the brigade, and the regiment was led by Maj. Stone, 
afterward Governor of Iowa. The long roll beat the regiment 
to arms at about seven o'clock. At the front, the battle was 
already raging, and the brigade was ordered to hurry to the sup- 
port of Prentiss's division, already being pressed back. 

" In just ten minutes from the first alarm," says the Colonel 
" the line was formed and marching." The distance to the front 
was quickly tramped by the eager men, and, forty rods north of 
what was called the u Peach Orchard," the line of battle was 
formed, while the wounded and the affrighted of Prentiss's men 
pushed past them to the rear. Once the brigade advanced across 
the Peach Orchard, in full view of the enemy, and under a 
severe fire of his artillery, but wiser orders brought it back to 
the north of the field.f Here for ten long hours — the whole 
day through — without breastworks or defense, the brave men 
resisted the assaults of the enemy. Time and again the rebel 
lines advanced, only to be driven back with fearful loss. The 

*No full report of the Second Iowa at Shiloh was ever made. 

tThe fact that there were two or three little peach orchards near to Pren- 
tiss's and Hurlbut's lines, has always tended to confusion in the reports of 
the battle. The orchard through which the Third Iowa fought was about 
three hundred yards south of the junction of the Corinth and Purdy roads. 
There was also a larger peach orchard a hundred and fifty yards south of the 
Eighth Iowa's second position. 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 137 

men of the brigade were falling in every direction. Col. Will- 
iams was disabled early in the action. Many officers and men 
were nearly dead with exhaustion, but still fought on. They 
realized that the fate of the whole army was at stake, and was 
wavering in the hands of the brave men fighting and holding 
out at fearful odds here by the Peach Orchard, and farther to 
the right where other Iowa men kept the assaulters at bay. 

At five o'clock, the falling back of troops on both flanks com- 
pelled the Third Iowa to retire; but they did it sullenly — turning 
to fire at their pursuers at every opportunity. On nearing their 
camp, they found their flanks enveloped. They were, in fact, 
surrounded. With one voice, they determined not to surrender, 
but to dash through the murderous lines. It was done with a 
yell, though many a man lost his life in the fierce gauntlet. 
Once through, they rallied the remaining few, and in line helped 
support the big batteries that hurled back the last charge of the 
rebel right at the river. 

On that single Sunday, the Third Iowa lost 187 brave men, of 
whom 23 were killed, and 134 wounded. Thirty were missing. 
Maj. Stone was captured with many others. No field officers 
were left in the regiment, and in the next day's battle, Lieut. 
William Dodd, and others of the line, commanded. 

All had distinguished themselves — many conspicuously so — 
among them Captains Trumbull and Knight, Lieut. Crosley and 
Sergt. Lakin. Lieut. Crosley was called on to command the 
regiment in the afternoon, and won the admiration and grati- 
tude of his comrades. Sergt. Lakin bore the colors in the thick 
fight and brought them safely through into camp, riddled with 
bullets. On the next day the same bullet-torn flag was borne 
through the conflict by Corp. Edwards. Many of the officers 
had been killed or wounded on that first day. Capt. Hobbs 
was killed, and Captains D. Leffingwell, E. J. Weiser, S. B. 
McCall, A. L. Ogg, J. Tullis and M. M. Trumbull, with Lieu- 
tenants P. W. Crawford, B. A. Matthews, P. G. C. Merrill, 
Simon G. Gary, John P. Knight, Will B. Hamill and John 
Wayne bore away rebel bullets in their bodies. 

While these Iowa regiments with Wallace and Hurlbut were 



138 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

struggling so fiercely at the center and left, Iowa soldiers were 
also busy in the conflict far to the right, with Sherman and 
McClernand. 

The first regiment that landed from the boats at Shiloh, was 
the Sixth Iowa. It was put in McDowell's brigade, far out to the 
extreme right, on the Purdy road. No troops were farther for- 
ward. Two companies of the Sixth, under Capt. M. M. Wal- 
den, afterward Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, were still farther 
advanced, guarding the bridge of the Purdy road over Owl Creek. 

Sherman commanded the division, and the whole line of this 
brigade was protected by hastily constructed breastworks. All 
the day and all the night before the battle, the line had remained 
under arms, on the alert, ready for an encounter. That line did 
not propose to be " surprised." 

By climbing trees, the encampment of the enemy had been 
seen in the distance by some of the officers, twenty-four hours 
before the battle. Gen. Sherman sent word of this to Grant on 
Saturday, the 5th, and that he " believed the enemy to be in force 
five miles to his front, on the Corinth road, with a brigade of 
infantry, a regiment of cavalry and a field battery." That they 
really proposed battle could not be known, for the rebel army, 
strangely enough, halted out there a whole day. 

McDowell's brigade, however, took it for granted that the 
Rebels meant to fight, and stood to arms at 4 o'clock on Sun- 
day morning. As McDowell, the colonel of the regiment, was 
in command of the brigade, the lieutenant colonel under arrest, 
and the major, J. M. Corse, absent on Pope's staff, the command 
of the Sixth Iowa devolved on Capt. Iseminger. 

With the rising sun, their ears were greeted with the roar of 
musketry and artillery far to the left of the brigade. They flew 
into line, but no enemy appeared in their front, where they were 
so ready to receive them. Nearer and nearer to them came the 
clash of battle at their left, a line of skirmishers was thrown out, 
but no enemy came on. Then, suddenly, as the battle sounds 
grew louder and nearer, they learned that our lines had given way, 
and the brigade was cut off from the main army. The men 
were quickly about-faced, and their chosen position abandoned. 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 139 

A move to the rear and by the left flank, for a circuit of a mile 
or more, brought them face to face with the enemy, who had 
broken through Sherman's lines and were in force at an open 
field. 

Here, between nine and ten o'clock, they charged across the 
field, drove the enemy into the woods, fighting them and hold- 
ing them there for three long hours. Capt. Isemiuger, the com- 
mander, was soon killed, as were many men. The next to assume 
command, Capt. Williams, was severely wounded; but the regi- 
ment, almost without leaders, fought on. Once, McDowell rode 
up to the Sixth to give an order, but just as he would speak, his 
horse plunged from under him, and he fell to the ground, injured 
and almost senseless. The position of the line was becoming 
critical; the enemy were trying to flank it on the right, and the 
regiment was suffering terribly. Then Gen. Sherman rode up 
and ordered the men, now nearly surrounded, to save themselves 
as best they could. The firing was already in the rear as the 
men broke to the left, and saved the remainder of the regiment 
by grace of good running for half a mile. Safe to the rear, 
re-collected and organized a little, under Captains Walden and 
Saunders — the former officer took command and led the regi- 
ment into the new line forming to support Col. Webster's artil- 
lery at the landing. 

Col. Webster rode down the line and requested the Sixth Iowa 
to move up closer to the support of the guns. Two regiments 
had refused the duty. " I pledge you my men at the guns will 
do their duty," said Webster, " and if the Rebels come on, I 
want you to meet them with the cold steel." 

On the Rebels did come, in serried lines, in front of one of 
the most death-dealing cannonades from artillery and gunboats 
of the war, but only to reel back, leaving the ground strewn 
with their dead. It was almost dark. "Now, boys," said Gen, 
Grant, slowly riding up behind the Sixth Iowa," put a little 
more musketry down in there." As he said this, he pointed 
down into the ravine where the Rebels were last seen. A volley 
was sent as directed. k ' Now, that's all right," he continued. 
" Now give them another one." And our commander rode away 
as quietly as he had come. His presence re-assured the line. 



140 IOWA IX WAK TIMES. 

At the same moment, Nelson's division of Buell's army had 
crossed the river and passed to our front. We gave them a 
cheer, and behind us a band played " Hail Columbia. 1 ' We were 
re-enforced, and darkness had come to help us. All that night 
the army lay in bivouac uuder a fearful rainstorm, with the fed- 
eral gunboats furnishing thunder. Monday morning late found 
the Sixth Iowa at the siege guns, but toward noon it was led to 
the front — first by Col. Oglesby, and then by Col. James A. Gar- 
field, afterward President of the United States. It passed the 
Shiloh Church, passed the cavalry, and once, with Garfield direct- 
ing it, chased a battery that had unlimbered at its front. That 
battery fired against the Sixth Iowa the last rebel shot at Shiloh. 
The regiment had fought in the battle with unsurpassed 
bravery. It had lost 183 men killed, wounded and missing, out 
of 650 engaged. Among the killed were Captains R. E. White 
and Daniel Iseminger, while Capt. F. Brydolf and Lieutenants 
J. S. Halliday, John T. Grimes and John H. Orman were 
wounded. No record of any regiment was more honorable at 
Shiloh. 

On another part of the battle field, to shift the scene, amid 
the fierce fighting of that Sunday, no troops were more con- 
spicuous than the Thirteenth Iowa, under Col. M. M. Crocker. 
His regiment, with the Eleventh Iowa, was in Oglesby's brigade 
of McClernand's division. As Oglesby was absent, Col. Abra- 
ham Hare, of the Iowa Eleventh, led the brigade until he 
was wounded at 4:30 o'clock, when Col. Crocker took command. 
Lt.-Col. William Hall led Hare's Eleventh regiment. The two 
regiments were separated some distance on the line, and did not 
fight together. 

The Thirteenth Iowa regiment entered the fight with 717 
men, rank and file, and they were among the best drilled and 
disciplined meu at Shiloh. The command sprang to the front 
when the alarm sounded that morning, but, owing to the giving 
away of other troops, it was flanked by the enemy early in the 
engagement, and compelled to fall back in disorder. A new 
line was formed, and fronting to the foe, the regiment, with two 
Illinois regiments, stood its ground under a heavy fire of cannon 




GENERAL M. M. CROCKER. 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 141 

and musketry till noon. Again, by orders, the line fell back, 
and again turned and fought incessantly till half past four, hurl- 
ing back repeated charges of the enemy and inflicting on him 
severe loss. Now, Col. Hare, the leader of the brigade, fell 
wounded, and was carried from the field, and Col. Crocker took 
command. Once more, by orders, the line fell back, and once 
more, rallied by Crocker, the men maintained their position 
under constant and galling fire of the enemy's artillery, till 
darkness ended the conflict. 

The regiment had been under fire for ten consecutive hours, 
and had lost 162 men, nearly all killed or wounded. Among 
the killed were Lieutenants Erasmus D. Duncan and John H. 
Watson. Lt.-Col. Price was wounded, as was Maj. Shane, Capt. 
T. H. Miller and Lieutenants Elliott Shurtz and Geo. S. Hamp- 
ton, Jr. Lieut. Buren R. Sherman, afterward Governor of Iowa, 
was most conspicuous for his gallantry, and was very severely 
wounded. Col. Crocker made honorable mention of Lt.-Col. 
Price, of Maj. Shane, and of his adjutant, Lieut. Wilson, whom 
Col. Hare called in his report, " the bravest of the brave/' Col. 
Crocker himself made on that day the foundation for his mili- 
tary fame, by extraordinary courage and cool skill manifested 
under trial and danger. 

While the Thirteenth Iowa was fighting so gallantly in the 
line, its sister regiment, the Eleventh Iowa, was engaged as bit- 
terly in the contest some distance to the right. There, with its 
right resting on a pond, and supporting Dresser's battery, the 
regiment fought heroically against overpowering numbers for 
over two hours, when it, too, was ordered to retire. In front of 
its own parade ground, the line about-faced and poured a hot 
fire into the enemy, causing them to fly, leaving one of their 
flags in the regiment's hands as a trophy of its heroism. 

Out of ammunition, later, the regiment again fell back, but, 
on the order of Gen. Grant, again advanced at a new front on 
the line. After skirmishing with the enemy, it moved to the 
support of the batteries that were to play such an important 
role in hurling back the last charge of the rebel host that Sun- 
day night. Twelve of the Iowa Eleventh worked some of the 



142 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

guns that evening, and with good effect. Lt.-Col. Hall's gallan- 
tly in the battle was much praised. He had his horse shot under 
him and was slightly wounded. Maj. John C. Abercrouibie and 
Col. A. M. Hare were wounded. Lieut. John P. Comptou was 
killed, and Capt. Charles Foster wounded. The total of killed 
and wounded numbered 193. This regiment and the fighting 
Thirteenth formed the nucleus, shortly after the battle, for 
Crocker's famous " Iowa Brigade. 11 

On that bloody field the Eleventh Iowa fought a part of the 
time under the direct orders of Gen. Grant, and its awful losses 
show with what gallantry it advanced, and with what fierceness 
it resisted the many charges made on its line. There were no 
braver regiments at Shiloh than the Eleventh Iowa, and no 
Iowa regiment lost so many officers and men slain on the field. 

Two other Iowa regiments, the Fifteenth and Sixteenth, 
fought at Shiloh, and lost severely in officers and men. Unlike 
the Second, Seventh, Fourteenth and others, these two commands 
had neither discipline nor experience. Rawer recruits never 
entered battle. Scarcely a man of the two regiments had ever 
loaded a musket, and yet they had scarcely set foot on the river 
bank until they were picked up and hurried into desperate battle. 

The Fifteenth regiment was led that day by Col. Hugh T. 
Ried. Its major was W. W. Belknap, later of military fame 
and secretary of war. The Sixteenth regiment was led by Col. 
Chambers, who had been an officer in the regular army, and the 
mustering officer for most of the Iowa troops. 

At nine o'clock that morning, the two regiments, unassigned 
as to brigade and division, were thrown across the path of the 
fugitives flying from the battle at the front. By 10:30 a. m. they 
had themselves been hurried to the right front in support of the 
weakening division of McClernand. " On our way to the front, 11 
says Chambers, " we met more numbers of men of all arms return- 
ing than belonged to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth regiments; 
but, for the credit of the state of Iowa, not one of her quota did 
I meet." On reaching the battle front, the two regiments were 
unfortunately led into a death trap. In front of them was an 
open field surrounded by woods — these filled with victorious 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 143 

rebel regiments and artillery. Once, the little line of raw 
soldiers was deliberately marched into this open field as if on 
parade, and in full range of the blasts of musketry and cannon 
that raked them with appalling severity. A new order took the 
line closer to the enemy and to the wood, where a hard conflict 
raged for nearly two hours. The loss was extremely severe. 
The Sixteenth had 131, and the Fifteenth 185, mostly killed and 
wounded. 

Officers as well as privates were rapidly falling, and at the 
critical moment, an Ohio regiment, supporting the right, gave 
way. The line was now being flanked, and there was nothing 
to do but retreat or surrender. In some disorder and confusion 
the line gave way, and was soon in the rear, mixed with other 
regiments that had been likewise driven back. 

Officers and men had done their best. Maj. Belknap of the 
Fifteenth had been wounded, but kept in the front, cool as a 
veteran. Col. Ried was wounded, and, like Belknap, unhorsed. 
Lieutenants Jesse B. Penneyman and Robert W. Hamilton were 
killed. Adjt. Pomutz was wounded, as were Captains R. W. 
Hutchcraft, James G. Day and E. C. Blackmar, together with 
Lieutenants James S. Porter, P. H. Goode, S. W. King, John A. 
Danielson and J. M. Ried. Special mention was made by Col. 
Ried, in his report, of the gallant conduct of Lieutenants 
Studer, Craig, Hanks, Ried, Eldridge, Landstrum, Brown and 
Herbert; of Sergt.-Maj. Brown, and of Color Sergt. Rogers. 

The Sixteenth regiment had lost Capt. John Ruehl and Lieut. 
Frank N. Doyle, killed, and Capt. Michael Zettler mortally 
wounded. Captains Alpheus Palmer, E. M. Newcomb, E. S. 
Frasier, and Lieutenants J. H. Lucas, Geo. H. Holcomb, P. Mil- 
ler, Louis Bunde and Henry Meyer were wounded. Col. Cham- 
bers had also been wounded. 

Lt.-Col. Saunders rallied a part of the Sixteenth regiment 
after it fell back, and this, as well as fragments of the Fifteenth 
regiment, joined with the forces supporting the batteries in the 
evening. 

When the sun set on that Sabbath evening at Shiloh, our 
army, though defeated, was not hopeless. Had Gen. Lew Wal- 



144 IOWA m WAR TIMES. 

lace's division, which had been aimlessly moving about all day, 
come up with its 10,000 men, all might have been different when 
the sun went down. Gen. Buell's advanced division had been 
all day marching twelve miles, and all day heard the cannon 
that were slaughtering their comrades. They came in time to 
fire a few shots with the setting sun, and sleep on the battle 
field. 

" Night came, Buell came, Wallace came, 1 ' says Grant, " but 
except night, all too late to help at Shiloh." So little did Buell 
help that night, that only three men of his lohole command were 
hurt. Gen. Grant's army had all done honorable and hard fight- 
ing that day, on every part of the fierce field, and the regiments 
of Iowa fought with a valor that history will not forget. Their 
heroism at the Peach Orchard, and with Tuttle's and Geddes's 
men, doubtless saved the army from disaster. The Rebels 
claimed a victory, but their only gain was the privilege of sleep- 
ing one night in the tents of the union soldiers. 

That Sunday night, in the awful storm and darkness that fell 
on the field, Grant resolved to attack the enemy at daylight. 
Buell's fresh army was pushed to the front, and fought glori- 
ously, as did many of the tired regiments of Grant's command, 
till the Rebels, leaving their dead and many of their wounded, 
fled from the field in dismay. 

Shiloh was won. 

Buell, with his fresh troops, might have pursued the demoral- 
ized Rebels and destroyed them. He did nothing of the kind, 
though Grant suggested it. Buell had done for a rival com- 
mander all he cared to do. The night before, when the conflict 
ceased, he had not even gone to see Grant, or asked him for 
advice or orders. "In fact," he says, U I did not regard Gen. 
Grant as my commander," and this, in spite of the fact that 
Gen. Halleck had ordered Grant to take command in case of a 
battle. 

The ease with which the rebel army might have been pursued 
and destroyed is a lamentable history. " Our condition >s horri- 
ble" writes Gen. Bragg to the commander-in-chief the next day, 
"our troops utterly disorganized and demoralized. " " It is," he 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 145 

continues in his letter to Beauregard, " most lamentable to see 
the state of affairs. The whole road presents the scene of a rout, 
and no mortal could restrain it." What a situation ! And 
Buell, with a fresh army, lies down to rest in his quiet camp ! 

No wonder the War of the Rebellion was prolonged. No 
wonder that at last an indignant people dragged such soldiers 
from their high commands. 

The losses on both sides at Shiloh, on the first day's battle, 
amounted to about 20,000 men . The Union army lost 10,944. 
Of these 2,381, or nearly one-fourth of the whole battle, came 
from Iowa.* It is an honorable record. 

In the battle of the 7th, the Iowa troops took no important 
part, being mostly in reserve, though several regiments sup- 
ported batteries or skirmished at the front — the Sixth, as already 
mentioned, receiving the last rebel shots on the field of Shiloh.\ 

The total union losses of both days at Shiloh, according to 
Gen. Grant, were 13,047. J 

*Not less than five Iowa men led brigades at Shiloh. They were Tuttle.. 
McDowell, Hare, Williams and Lauman. Lauman led with gallantry a 
brigade of Kentucky and Indiana troops. The losses show that some of the 
very hardest fighting was done by their commands. 

fWhat the rebel commanders thought of the fighting at the " Hornets' 
Nest" maybe gleaned from their reports. Gen. Gibson, speaking of the 
assaults by his own brigade, says: " Four times the position was charged, 
and four times the assault proved unavailing.'' 

"Our brigade,"' says the rebel Col. Pugh, " repeatedly led to the charge, 
each time bravely breasting a storm of musketry and canister, were com- 
pelled to retire." 

Col. Fagan called his command at the "Hornets' Nest" "A Forlorn 
Hope." " We three times braved a perfect rain of bullets, shot and shell — 
endured a murderous fire until endurance ceased to be a virtue." * * * 
"Three different times did we go into that valley of death, and as often 
were forced bark." 

" That all was done that could possibly be done, the heaps of killed and 
wounded left there, give ample evidence." 

\ THE HORNETS' NEST. 

The Rebels designated a portion of that fierce field the " Hornets' Nest." 
The exact locality styled so, may never be definitely known. Gen. Tuttle 
believed that the line of his brigade was the Hornets' Nest, and he was so 
informed by a rebel officer who had been in some of the charges. Col. 
Shaw, an earnest student of the battle field, and an officer of Tuttle's com- 
mand, asserts that the right of Tuttle's brigade was not at the Hornets' 
Nest, at all, but that the " Nest " included the line of the Twelfth and Four- 
teenth Iowa, at left of brigade, and line of Eighth Iowa, of Prentiss's divis- 
ion. The officers of Col. Pugh's brigade (including the Third Iowa) of 
Hurlburt's division, fighting fiercely farther to the left than Tuttle, are 

I. w. T.— 10 



146 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NO. 10. 

Early in the spring of 1862, and just about the time that the 
union army started up the Tennessee river to what proved to be 
the battle ground of Shiloh, another army, under Maj.-Gren. John 
Pope, was sent down to operate against New Madrid and Island 
No. 10. in the Mississippi river. 

Pope, with the aid of a fleet of gunboats, was able to achieve 
a brilliant victory. When Grant's capture of Fort Donelson 

positive their position was the dreaded " Hornets' Nest." Col. Bell, at that 
time a Captain of the Eighth Iowa, and othe. =s with him, locate the " Nest " 
at the point where the Eighth, Twelfth and' urteenth Iowa, and Twenty- 
third Missouri, Eighteenth Wisconsin and Filty-eighth Illinois, made then- 
last terrible struggle and were captured. This was near the Peach Orchard. 

Col. Benhatn, one of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's aides de camp, places 
the " Hornets' Nest" at the point where W. H. L. Wallace and Prentiss made 
their last stand, and near where the one was killed and the*other captured. 

If union losses were to indicate the locality, the order would be as fol- 
lows: 

Right of Tuttle's brigade (Second and Seventh Iowa), 106. 

Shaw's position (line of Eighth, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa), 329. 

Pugh's position (line of Third Iowa, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second and 
Forty-first Illinois), 644. 

Bell's position: (point of capture of Eighth, Twelfth, Fourteenth Iowa, 
Twenty-third Missouri, Eighteenth Wisconsin and Fifty-eighth Illinois), 588. 
, The number of wounded who were captured of the last three regiments is 
not known. These would increase the losses considerably. 

It is possible that the " Hornets' Nest," so feared by the Rebels, included 
the ivhole line from the Peach Orchard up to and including the left of Tuttle's 
brigade. 

The son of Albert Sidney Johnston, the rebel commander at Shiloh, refers 
to the Hornets' Nest as at the federal left center — the position held by the 
divisions of W. H. L. Wallace, Hurlbut and Prentiss. This very nearly cor- 
responds witli the line I have suggested above. 

It was all hot enough, according to rebel reports, and locate it where we 
-will on that line, Iowa soldiers were in it. 

The losses in the Iowa regiments engaged at Shiloh, were as follows : 



REGIMENT. 



Second 

Third 

Sixth 

Seventh. . . 
Eighth . . . 
Eleventh. . 
Twelfth... 
Thirteenth 
Fourteenth 
Fifteenth . 
Sixteenth . 



3 



60 
134 

94 

17 
112 
160 
103 
139 

38 
156 
101 



311 

cfi cS « 



is 



157 
146 

27 
146 
193 
127 
159 

47 
177 
118 



c 
B'S 



4 

30 

37 

6 

370 

1 

320 

3 

r<5 

8 

13 



Total. 



72 
187 
183 

33 
516 
194 
447 
162 
273 
185 
131 



IOWA AT SHILOH. 117 

made the evacuation of Columbus a necessity, the Rebels 
resolved to contest the possession of the Mississippi river at 
the stray position of Island No. 10, sixty miles below. The 
point was splendidly fortified and defended by 9,000 men, 
with one hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery. New 
Madrid, a few miles below, was a part of the defensive chain, and 
was itself strongly fortified and supported by a number of rebel 
gunboats. 

Gen. Pope determined to march his army against New Madrid, 
while the fleet of gunb^ i should pound away at Island No. 10. 
Some twenty-six thousand troops were sent to Pope's rendezvous 
at Cairo, and, by March the 1st, they were transported to the 
village of Commerce, thirty miles above Cairo. The plan was 
to march through the great Mingo Swamp and attack New 
Madrid from the rear. The troops were re-organized at Com- 
merce and formed what was afterwards known as the famous 
Army of the Mississippi. Iowa sent two regiments of infantry, 
a regiment of cavalry and a battery, with this army of Pope's: 
the Fifth and Tenth infantry, Second cavalry and Sands's bat- 
tery. In all the operations that followed for the reduction of 
New Madrid, they bore an honorable part. Under considerable 
hardships from bad weather, deficient roads, and floods of water, 
the passage of the Mingo swamp was made, and the siege of 
New Madrid begun. In that siege the two Iowa infantry regi- 
ments were repeatedly under a heavy fire of artillery. This was 
especially true of a part of the Fifth regiment. 

The country all about New Madrid was perfectly level, and as 
the water was high in the river the rebel gunboats had a full 
sweep of the union position. Skirmishing, reconnoissances, artil- 
lery duels and all the operations of a siege were carried on daily 
with the greatest enthusiasm. The Iowa troops were compli- 
mented by Gren. Pope for their excellent bearing under fire, as 
were the gallant Col. Worthington and Maj. Robertson, of the 
Fifth, and Col. Perczel of the Tenth. On the dark and stormy 
night of March the 13th, at midnight, the troops were led into 
the advanced trenches, with a view to assault at daylight. 
Worthington led a brigade. There was a terrific thunderstorm, 



148 IOWA IN WAB TIMES. 

and the darkness, said Gen. Hamilton, " was palpable." The 
water in the trenches was knee deep, but the men bore the dis- 
comfort without a murmur. At last, daylight came, but instead 
of battle, a flag of truce. Expecting the assault, the enemy had 
fled in the darkness over the river and away. Without waiting 
to count the enormous war stores captured, the scores of heavy 
cannon, and all the belongings of an army, Pope, too, crossed the 
river, and pursued. Near Tiptonville, the whole force, including 
the troops that had run away from Island No. 10 at the same 
time, was captured. 

To that point at least, the great river was free. The taking 
of three generals, with 273 officers, nearly 7,000 men, and 158 
cannon, made a victory of immense consequence at that early 
period of the war. 

On the banners of all the army, including the Fifth and 
Tenth Iowa, were inscribed New Madrid and Island No. 10. 
The victory, great as it was, had been achieved with trifling loss. 
Gen. Pope's casualties were only half a hundred men; the fact 
made the victory more complete. The Iowa regiments lost but 
half a dozen, but the experience of the siege, and the glory of 
the victory were incentives to their valor on later and bloodier 
fields. 

These two regiments formed next a part of Pope's re-enforc- 
ing troops, sent by transports from New Madrid to the army 
under Gen. Grant, on the battle ground of Shiloh. The great 
battle was over — the siege of Corinth had begun, and the regi- 
ments that had found war but a play-spell at New Madrid, were 
that summer to wade in their comrades' blood at the fierce battle 
of Iuka. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 
Sept. 19, 1862. 

In the month of September, 1862, the rebel army under Gen. 
Bragg, and the union army under Gen. Buell, were having a 
race northward for the Ohio river. 

Lee had whipped Pope in Virginia, and now the rebel army, 
under Price and Van Dorn, hoped to destroy Gen. Grant at or 
near Corinth, or else flank him and march to the rear of Buell 
on his race with Bragg. 

The advantage of early victories to the Union had about been 
lost by the dispersion, by Gen. Halleck, of our great western 
army after the siege of Corinth. An army of one hundred and 
seventy-three thousand well-equipped soldiers, capable in a body 
of marching anywhere in Rebeldom, was scattered to the four 
points of the compass. Gen. Halleck went to Washington as 
commander-in-chief, and left Gen. Grant with less than forty 
thousand men to defend western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, 
two hundred miles of railroad, and the rear of Buell's army. 
Gen. Grant's line thus had to reach from Florence, on the Ten- 
nessee, to Memphis, on the Mississippi. His army fronted to 
the southwest, with Sherman holding his extreme right at Mem- 
phis, and Rosecrans his left near Corinth and the Tennessee. It 
was a front line, a hundred and fifty miles long to guard, besides 
a supply line to keep open clear north to Cairo. 

In front of Grant's lines, at Tupelo and Holly Springs, and 
not fifty miles away, lay the rebel armies of Price and Van 
Dorn, prepared to pounce upon detached portions of Grant's 

Q49) 



150 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

army and destroy them, or flank him and get north. It was a 
gloomy period for the country. Many loyal people, in the 
time before that battle of September, 1862, believed the Union 
to be lost. Only the faith of the patient President remained 
supreme. He saw God's hand helping where the courage of 
men faltered. 

To have crushed Grant's lines at that time would have 
brought about a disgraceful ending of the war. The rebel 
leaders saw their opportunity, and Price and Van Dorn moved 
out their columns for the attack. Price moved up to Grant's 
left flank at Iuka, hoping to crush him there, and then follow 
him and Buell north, or else hurry back to Rienzi, join Van 
Dorn's column there, and make a combined attack on Corinth. 

Documents show that Price was not quite determined as to 
what he should do on September 13th, the day he drove the 
little union garrison out of Iuka. 

Grant and Rosecrans had been watching him closer than he 
knew, and his every movement was reported immediately by 
energetic union scouts. In marching into Iuka with a river 
east of him, and union columns west and north of him, he did 
not realize the sort of a net he was entering. In fact, Gen. 
Price did not even know of the position of the union forces. 
Rosecrans and Grant saw the position Price was in, and marched 
with a view to capturing his army. 

Some unexpected delay of Rosecrans's division, and an unlucky 
wind that prevented Grant hearing the signal guns of Rose- 
crans, interfered with a well laid plan. Price ought to have 
been captured. 

Grant, whose headquarters were at Jackson, pushed a column 
of 8,000 men under Ord out in front of the little village of 
Burnsville, seven miles northwest of Iuka, with orders to 
attack Price the moment he should hear the guns of Rose- 
crans, who was marching from Jacinto to attack th^ Rebels 
from the west and south. Grant accompanied Ord's column in 
person, making his headquarters at Burnsville. Ord was in posi- 
tion on the 18th, between Burnsville and Iuka, ready to attack 
at daybreak of the 19th. Unexpectedly on that day a courier 



4e* €£ v 

inn »wv*fc»« i«r 






.i 


\ 


/f'l 


rj^ \ ^W 











GENERAL C. L. MATTHIES. 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 151 

from Rosecrans brought news of some delay occurring to one of 
his divisions. He could not be up to attack on the west before 
2 p. M. of the morrow. So Grant, who was near Ord's column, 
ordered his troops to bivouac and wait. 

From early daylight of the 19th, Rosecrans's forces marched 
for Iuka, and at two in the afternoon suddenly ran into the 
enemy's pickets a few miles out of town. The Fifth Iowa 
infantry was in advance. In five minutes, skirmish lines 
were formed, and the men of Iowa were forcing back the rebel 
veterans of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Five Iowa regi- 
ments, the Fifth, Tenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth infantry, 
and Second cavalry, took part in the battle that raged till dark 
of that afternoon. 

It was one of the battles that made Iowa famous in the annals 
of the war. 

Rosecrans's force consisted of Hamilton's and Stanley's divis- 
ions, with some cavalry of the Second Iowa, Third Michigan 
and Seventh Kansas. Hamilton was in the front at noon, and 
remained in the front through the battle. Unfortunately, a 
dense wood, with swamps, and without a road of any kind, lay 
between the forces of Rosecrans and Grant, making any com- 
munication whatever impossible, except by a circuitous route of 
some twenty miles, ridden by couriers. In fact, a column would 
have had to march back nearly to Jacinto, to reach Grant from 
Rosecrans, or Rosecrans from Grant. This was one of the fatal- 
ities of the position, not made use of, either, by the rebel com- 
mander. His army lay in front of Ord's column, north of the 
town. Had he been aware of the real situation, he might have 
overwhelmed Ord, and by a quick move hurried south of the 
town, and destroyed Rosecrans. He had double the troops of 
either of them. 

Learning of Rosecrans's approach up the Bay Springs road, 
he simply divided his force in front of Ord, and sent half of 
it to attack the new enemy. Then was Ord's chance, alike 
unseen by him or Grant. Of course, Grant, with Ord, was 
waiting to hear the sound of Rosecrans's cannon. That sound 
never reached him. An unlucky wind kept him and Ord and his 



152 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

whole army resting in complete ignorance of a severe battle 
raging within a dozen miles of them— a battle in which their 
comrades were being slaughtered for want of help so near — a 
battle where was wasted one of the opportunities of the war. 

Slowly the rebel skirmish line in front of Rosecrans was 
driven back and back that afternoon. The first Federal killed 
was a brilliant young officer of Hamilton's staff. The deployed 
line of the Fifth Iowa kept on its march through the woods for 
miles, still skirmishing. Here and there a wounded man fell to 
the rear, and here and there lay the body of some dead Rebel, 
whose blood added crimson to the beautiful autumn leaves. The 
woods and the day seemed too beautiful for war. 

By half past four o'clock our troops, marching in column, 
close behind the advancing skirmishers, came to a little country 
church at the forks of the road, and here halted a little as if to 
listen, and for breath. We were only two miles from Iuka. 
Rosecrans rode up to the front, put his hand to his ear and 
listened, hoping for the sound of battle to the north of town. 
No signs of Ord were noticeable. Again our little line moved 
quietly forward, and in a few minutes we were greeted with a 
blast of musketry. Instantly the Fifth Iowa was thrown across 
the road in line of battle, and a battery, the Eleventh Ohio, 
was placed in position on its left. After all, the enemy, not we, 
were making the attack. In five minutes, one of his batteries 
was hurling grape and canister through the trees above our 
heads. "They are flanking you on the right," cried an excited 
officer, running back from the skirmish line to Col. Matthies of 
the Fifth. 

" Veil, I sees about dat," said our good and brave old German 
colonel, " 1 sees." A glance over the ground, and our regi- 
ment is wheeled and faced nearly to the north. To the left of 
the Ohio battery, which unlimbered at the roadside by us, and 
which we proposed protecting, stood in line the Forty-eighth 
Indiana infantry, and to the left of it, the Fourth Minnesota. 
On the right of all was our own Fifth Iowa. This was our line 
of battle. Not one of us had ever been in real conflict before. 
We fixed our sword-bayonets on our good Whitney rifles, and 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 153 

knelt down in line to await the coming foe. The woods and the 
hill sloping down from our front almost hid us from view. 
Shortly, we knew the moment of fierce trial was at hand, for 
we heard the lines of the enemy advancing toward us. We 
heard the commands of their officers, " Steady, boys, steady! 
Back in the center; steady; slow!" Those were awful moments, 
waiting that advance. Nearer they came; we hear their very 
tramp — and then, there rings out on the air, so that even they 
hear it, the voice of our own commander, "Attention, battalion! 1 ' 
We spring to our feet and grasp our rifles. " Ready, aim, fire!" 
and a sheet of deadly flame flashes to the faces of the foe, not 
fifty steps away. Instantly they reply, and the battle is begun. 

From left to right, and right to left, goes the crash of musketry 
along our lines. In a minute, every man is conducting war on 
his own method, by loading and firing as fast as he can. No or- 
ders can be heard — none are given. It is simply fire and load, 
load and fire, and never yield your ground. 

We have in mind the men of Wilson's Creek. We'll be as 
brave as they. We think of Iowa. She shall not be dishon- 
ored; rather every man in Iuka die than that. What if we are 
outnumbered? It is death to them to hurry on these swords of 
ours. These Whitney rifles cany the messages of fate to all in 
front. The Rebels find that out — the Texans, the Louisianians, the 
Mississippians, veterans of bloody fields, find that out, and falter 
in the blast — falter, but only to catch new courage, and charge 
again. Our own men are falling all about us. Our mess-mates, our 
bunk-mates of the morning, dead and torn and bleeding, drop un- 
heeded beside us. There is no time for heeding. Their blood 
crimsons the grass and the leaves as they lie there, but their 
groans are unheard in the crash of the guns. Poor Shelly of 
Jasper fell first, and then another and another, till their falling 
is not noticed. We only close up, touch elbows, and with grim 
faces fire and fire until we too shall drop in the leaves and blood 
of that afternoon. There is no one to carry us to the rear. 
Burning heads and crushed bones must only wait. No man can 
be spared for helping wounded now. Even the wounded who 
can stand up at all, stay on the line and tear cartridges for their 



154 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

firing comrades. Every man seems to feel that the fate of the 
battle and the honor of Iowa is in his single hands, and spite of 
repeated assaults and terrific charges, no man of the Fifth Iowa 
leaves that burning line, or yields one foot of ground. 

" Don't yield that ground! Keep your position at every haz- 
ard! 1 ' cries a staff ofiicer from Rosecrans to our good colonel. 
"Dat's just vot I calculate to do," is the answer, and the firing 
and the charging and the deafening roar of the battle go on for 
an hour and a half. And what an hour and a half! with the 
lines thinning, the men falling, the cannon crashing! The Blue 
and the Gray never, in all the bloody war, had a contest more 
bitter, where lines of musketry stood up within fifty yards of 
each other and poured a constant flame of battle in each other's 
faces. Charge is met by counter-charge. We hear a yell. 
They are coming on us, on the run ! 

"Charge, double-quick, charge!" cries our colonel. 

Down go our bayonets — forward, with a cheer, and we drive 
the Rebels in retreat. It is only for a moment. Our battery 
at our side is pouring into them double shots of canister. 

In a slight depression, hidden at the front, the rebel ranks re- 
form, and in double lines charge the battery. Still it vomits its 
bags of shot and canister into the coming line. On they come, 
spite of the death-dealing missiles. Every horse and almost ev- 
ery man at the battery is shot down, as the enemy swarms over 
the guns, and for a moment captures them. 

A sudden move of four companies of the Twenty-sixth Mis- 
souri, to the left of the Fifth Iowa, and right behind the cap- 
tured battery, drives the Rebels from the guns. Their charge, 
except to silence the guns, has been in vain. They have man- 
aged to carry back but a single gun with them. The Twenty-sixth 
Missouri has saved most of the battery, disabled though it is, and 
prevented the Rebels from cutting our line in two and getting 
in behind the Fifth. 

While this charging and storming is going on at the right, 
a terrific assault is being made on the left of the union battery. 
The assault, a terrible one, is checked for a moment under an 
awful fire from the Sixteenth Iowa and Forty-eighth Indiana; 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 155 

but re-enforced, the Rebels storm on, and partially succeed. For 
a short distance the Forty-eighth Indiana and its support, the 
Sixteenth Iowa, fall back, but still fight on. Col. Chambers of 
the Sixteenth is badly wounded, and some 70 of the regiment 
are killed, wounded and missing. 

" In the storm of grape, canister and musketry, the Sixteenth 
Iowa stood like a rock, 1 ' said Rosecrans in his report. 

Adjt. Lawrence, a gallant officer, was killed. Capt. Palmer 
and Lieutenants Alcorn, Williams and Lucas, were all wounded. 
Capt. Smith of Company A, and Capt. Fraser of Company B, 
were both mentioned for special gallantry. The colonel, after 
his severe wound, was captured, but afterward left on the battle 
field. The Fourth Minnesota has also been overwhelmed and 
falls back a little, but from its new position fights on bravely. 
The situation for the regiments farthest at the front, is a des- 
perate one. In the words of the brigade commander, " There 
was no alternative but for the battery, the Fifth Iowa, and the 
four companies of the Twenty-sixth Missouri, to fight the battle 
out; and nobly did they do it." Not a battery in all the war 
held out better than did the Eleventh Ohio under Lieut. Sears at 
Iuka. 

Spite of the re-enforcements to the enemy, and spite of re- 
newed charges, the Fifth Iowa preserves every inch of its battle 
line. A full regiment of Alabamians is brought fresh on the 
field to charge the position of the Fifth, but is hurled back as 
the others have been. A hand to hand encounter, one of the 
few of the war, ensues. A big, red-shirted Alabamian breaks 
through our ranks, attempts to seize the colors of the Fifth, and 
is bayoneted. At the range of but a few feet, the lines fire vol- 
leys in each other's faces. Then the Alabamians fall back and 
continue the fire from the little ridge in front. 

So the regiment fought until the sun went down and dark- 
ness settled on the battle field, when, with ammunition boxes 
empty, and half its numbers killed or wounded, it was replaced 
by the Eleventh Missouri, which had now come up to its sup- 
port, and which fought till after dark with the greatest valor, on 
the ground the Fifth had stood on. 



156 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



Meanwhile, across the road, and on the left of our line, the 
Rebels are also charging. But the Tenth Iowa infantry and 
the Twelfth Wisconsin battery happen to be posted at right 
angles to, and a little in advance of our line, and as two Missis- 
sippi regiments charge on the Fourth Minnesota, they receive a 
raking flank fire from the Tenth Iowa and the battery, that 
stretches 40 of them on the field in almost as many seconds. 
Gen. Little, their commander, has just been killed, and the Mis- 
sissippians leave the field in disorder. Night has closed the bat- 
tle, aud Price's army prepares to bury its dead and retreat before 
daylight of the morrow. In a few days he will join Van Dorn, 
and the two march on Corinth, to meet further disaster. 

All that night the union surgeons, among whom was Surgeon 
F. Lloyd, of Iowa City, later medical director on McPherson's 
staff, with their assistants, carrying candles, might have been 
seen attending to the wounded and the dying. The field hos- 
pital and the yards about were filled with these, while many still 
lay in their agony where they fell in the afternoon. The sor- 
row of the tragedy was upon the scene. 

" In the hush of that night," writes a participant, " as the 
prayers of mothers, brothers, sisters and fathers were going up 
to Heaven from far-away homes, for the dear ones who had gone 
to battle for their country, the spirits of these brave ones for 
whom they prayed, mingling with their ascending prayers, took 
their flight from friends and earthly scenes forever. The smoke 
of the battle was the smoke of the evening sacrifice ascending 
from the altar of our country, upon which our dearest friends 
were the willing victims." 

The burden of the fight had been borne mostly by one 
small brigade of 2,800 men. The union loss was 144 killed, 
598 wounded, and 40 missing, probably dead. The Fifth 
Iowa lost the most of any regiment engaged. Two hundred 
and seventeen of the 482 engaged were killed or wounded, among 
them 15 officers. This was an appalling loss. Lieutenants Shawl 
and Holcomb were both killed, while Captains Albaugh and 
Brown, with Lieutenants Patterson, Casad, Mateer, Ellis, Page, 



IOWA AT THE BATTLE OF IUKA. 157 

Jarvis, Lewis, Pangborn, Sample, Huber and Colton were 
wounded; Mateer, mortally. 

The rebel loss fell little less than 1,700 in killed, wounded 
and missing. Two hundred and sixty-five of his dead were left 
in the Union hands, while 120 men died in Iuka after his retreat. 
Three hundred and seventy-one of, his wounded were also left in 
Iuka. Three hundred and sixty-one prisoners were taken from 
him, and Price states in his report that " many of the wounded 
were safely brought away." They had fought in the battle in 
double line, thus accounting for many dead or wounded. In 
one spot, covered by a tarpaulin, we found 162 rebel corpses 
laid in a row for burial; in another spot, 19. 

Our own dead were from among the best in any land — men of 
intelligence and character, rich and poor, who had left happy 
homes to die in defense of principle and country. Many towns 
and counties were put in mourning by the dreadful list of killed. 

Of the 782 union men lost in battle, 693 were of Hamilton's 
division — 608 of these in Sanborn's single brigade. Of these, 217 
fell in the Fifth Iowa. There were few battles where so many 
fell in proportion to the number engaged. Many of the veteran 
Rebels have since pronounced Iuka the hardest fight they were 
in during the war. 

" It was the hardest fought battle I have ever witnessed," wrote 
Gen. Price, and the rebel general Maury, pronounced it " one of 
the fiercest and bloodiest combats of the war." 

" The battle was fought along the road," writes Gen. Hamilton, 
"by the Fifth Iowa, the Twenty-Sixth Missouri, and the Eleventh 
Missouri and the battery, with a bravery that scarcely permits 
parallel." 

That night, the fame and the glory of the Fifth Iowa were 
made, and its survivors of Iuka kept the record untarnished in 
later battles of the war. 

Note — Rosecrans won a star for Iuka, but Gen. Grant reported officially 
that a part of Hamilton's division, including the Iowa regiments, did all the 
fighting, directed wholly by Hamilton in person. " I commend Hamilton to 
the president," wrote Gen. Grant. Rosecrans had twenty regiments and 
thirty cannon near the field, and yet allowed three or four regiments to do 



158 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

all the fighting:, and left open the only single road by which Price could 
escape. Stars were easily earned in those days. Hamilton's men won a 
victory that day that afterward made the capture of Vicksburg a possibility. 
It left Grant's hands free to act in Mississippi, and Iowa valor on that Iuka 
field saved a national disgrace. The awful list of dead and wounded showed 
that Iowa men held the post of danger and of honor. Owing to its position, 
as well as its heroic fighting, the Ffth Iowa bore off the greatest meed of honor 
from Iuka, but the other Iowa regiments engaged had shortly the oppor- 
tunity to win as great honor on other bloody fields. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 
Oct. 3 and 4, 1862. 

At a little after midnight of October 2d, 1862, there was 
great stir at tbe union camp in Corinth. 

At that still hour of the night, a staff officer was noticed going 
from brigade to brigade, ordering the officers to have their men 
''fall in." The roll was scarcely over before it was whispered 
about that a rebel army 40,000 strong was marching on the 
place, and that daylight would find the forces in line of battle, 
[n truth, Gen. Van Dorn's whole army was at that very moment 
rising from its bivouac, only ten miles away, to come and assault 
the position. Tents were struck in the union camp, haversacks 
and cartridge boxes speedily filled, and wagons were loaded and 
packed, with the sick of the regiments appointed as guards. 
The surgeons looked into their medicine chests again; the hos- 
pital stewards prepared extra supplies of bandages, and the 
drummers and fifers, laying their drums and their fifes aside, 
were told off as litter bearers. Shortly, in the magnificent moon- 
light of that October night, regiments, and brigades and divis- 
ions were marching from their camps at the south of the town, to 
new positions, out past the village to the north, the northeast, and 
the west. Out there in the woods, three miles from the town 
stretched the long line of earth defenses built by Gen. Beaure- 
gard, when the Rebels held Corinth after the battle of Shiloh. 

Along these lines Gen. Rosecrans now placed his army of 
23,000 men. Behind them, and close to the town, the clay on 
them still fresh, frowned the redoubts and breastworks, built as 
an inner defense by the soldiers of Rosecrans. 

(159) 



160 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Marching up and down there in the moonlight were not less 
than thirteen regiments of soldiers from Iowa. They formed a 
strong part of the army that was to defend Corinth against one 
of the most desperate assaults ever made on the American con- 
tinent. 

Gen. Rosecrans scarcely expected to hold the long line of out- 
side earthworks against the rebel army. They were built on too 
extensive a scale, Beauregard having intended them for an army 
of a hundred thousand men. They would answer Rosecrans as 
foils, however, and behind them and masked by them, he could 
prepare for the real defense. 

The Columbus railroad entered these fortifications from the 
north, and the Memphis railroad came in from the west, though 
inclining south near Corinth. The two roads formed a great 
triangle out there in the woods, and in this triangle the main 
part of the rebel army was to concentrate for the battle. 

Only in the night of October the 2d, did Rosecrans learn for si 
certainty that the rebel army was marching on Corinth. Scouts 
and reconnoitering parties informed him two days before, of 
large masses of troops in motion. They were coming from Rip- 
ley north; but whether to attack Corinth, or to flank the place 
by crossing the Memphis railroad west of it, and march on Boli- 
var, held by a union garrison, could not be known. Van Dorn 
kept his movements well masked. 

Price's army, after its defeat at Tuka, united with Van Dorn at 
Ripley, thirty miles south of Corinth, and on the 29th of Sep- 
tember broke camp and marched north. " No army, 1 ' says Van 
Dorn, "ever marched to battle with prouder steps, more hopeful 
countenances, nor with more courage than marched the army of 
West Tennessee out of Ripley on the morning of September 29th. 
on its way to Corinth.'" The greatest importance was attached 
to the attempt on Corinth by the Rebels. Its capture would re- 
deem West Tennessee from the Federals. It must be taken at 
whatever sacrifice. " The attack on Corinth," says Van Dorn, 
" was a military necessity." 

Earl Van Dorn marched his army quickly and straight north, 
till he struck the Memphis railroad at Pocahontas, twenty miles 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 161 

west and north of Corinth — then he suddenly turned east, and 
marched for Corinth itself. The night of October 2d, his army 
slept at the village of Chewalla, ten miles away, and long before 
daylight of the 3d, he was approaching the outer works at Cor- 
inth. Gen. Sterling Price, whom the Iowa soldiers had defeated 
at Wilson's Creek, and again at Iuka, commanded Van Dorn's 
left wing, while Van Dorn, leading the right, commanded the 
whole. 

Gen. Rosecrans's troops were little more than in position, 
when stiff fighting had commenced by detachments under Col. 
Oliver and Gen. McArthur, far out on the left and toward Che- 
walla. Nine o'clock found Rosecrans's army lying in a semi- 
circle, reaching from the west around north and northeast of the 
town, with C. S. Hamilton's division on the right across the 
Purdy road, Davies's division in the center, McKean's division 
on the left and Stanley's division back in reserve. 

All of these divisions except Stanley's included Iowa troops T 
and even that had with it the Second Iowa battery of light ar- 
tillery. The Fifth Iowa infantry was in Buford's brigade of 
Hamilton's division. The Tenth and Seventeenth were in Sul- 
livan's brigade of the same division. The Second and Seventh 
Iowa and the " Union brigade"* were in Hackleman's brigade of 
Davies's division, — while Crocker's whole brigade, comprising the 
Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments 
was in McKean's division on the left. The Second Iowa cav- 
alry was also on the ground, under Maj. Coon and Col. Hatch, 
while the Third Iowa infantry, under Hurlbut at the Hatchie, 
gallantly fought the enemy later on his retreat. There were 
some fifty regiments or parts of regiments in the battle of Cor- 
inth. Of these, thirteen and a battery, or nearly one-third, were 
from Iowa. 

Ten o'clock found heavy fighting going on in front of the di- 
vision of Davies, near the Columbia railroad, where the Second 
and Seventh Iowa and the " Union brigade" were hotly contest- 

*The detachment known as the" Union brigade" consisted of such frag- 
ments of the Eighth, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa, and the Fifty-eighth Illi- 
nois regiments, as had not been captured at Shiloh. They fought well 
at Corinth, and lost heavily considering the number engaged. 

I. W. T.— 11 



162 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

ing the field. Just at their right, were fighting the Tenth and 
Seventeenth Iowa in Hamilton's division. 

It was a hard battle day. The rays of an almost tropical sun 
poured an intense heat straight down on the unprotected heads 
of the soldiers. Scarcely a breath of air moved. The thermom- 
eter registered 108 degrees in the shade. Water was scarce, and 
almost too hot to drink from the tin canteens. Added to all, 
were the heat and the smoke of tons and tons of burning powder, 
the awful explosions of massed artillery, the heated crash of 
musketry, men and horses crushed and bleeding and dying — 
mangled human beings begging for a drop of water, and no one 
to hear. But that was war, and this was a battle! 

At the hour mentioned, the whole rebel army was trying to 
drive Rosecrans's division out of the advanced breastworks. 
Many of the Rebels charging on these works knew them perfectly. 
They had helped to build them — now, they would take them. 

The Seventh Iowa had been out feeling for the enemy in the 
swamp beyond the breastworks in front of Sullivan's brigade, 
and it had scarcely gotten back in line when solid columns of 
Rebels came charging out of the woods and on to the breast- 
works. 

The principal storm of the moment was against Oglesby's 
brigade at Hackleman's left. The double-shotted discharges of 
grape and canister from the artillery and the blasts of union 
musketry never checked the charging columns. On they came, 
and with a yell were inside the works in front of Oglesby. His 
brigade gave way. Sullivan's line, with the Iowa men, was in- 
stantly flanked, and Davies's whole division fell back half a mile. 
A new line of battle was scarcely formed when again it was 
flanked, and again the division retired to a point known as the 
" White House." Here the Second and Seventh Iowa, with the 
Union brigade, formed the center and left of Sullivan's brigade. 
In this position the men lay down, waiting another onslaught 
of the enemy. 

At two and a half o'clock the shock came. In front of the 
White House was an open field, and into this, in grand style, in 
columns of divisions, the Rebels moved in solid mass. Fairly 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 163 

in the field, and in the face of a deadly fire of artillery, the rebel 
columns deployed in line and dashed swiftly forward into full 
range of the union musketry. At this instant the federal line 
rose, and, as one man, poured a deadly blast into their faces. 
The Rebels reeled and fled, but only to renew courage and 
advance again. Again they reeled and were followed and forced 
back into the woods at the point of the bayonet. In this charge 
of our men fell Col. Baker, gloriously leading the Second Iowa. 
" I die content," he cried: " I have seen my regiment victoriously 
charging the enemy." What soldier would not die as Baker 
died! 

But the field was not won. Re-enforced with fresh troops, 
the Rebels returned instantly to the conflict. The Second and 
the Seventh Iowa, with their comrades of Illinois in the same 
brigade, fought fiercely, and lost many officers and men. The 
Union brigade, on the left, gave way — so, too, did Mower's 
brigade just as it was brought up to the rescue. In trying to 
rally them, the gallant Glen. Oglesby was shot down with an 
almost mortal wound — and Hackleman, the brave and loved 
commander of the brigade, laid down his life. " I am dying for 
my country," were his last words on the battlefield. "If we 
are victorious, send my remains home; if not, bury me on the 
field." Heroic heart ! 

The command of the brigade immediately fell to Gen. Sweeny. 
Shortly the order came to fall back, and the division retired at 
five in the evening to a position at the right of " Fort Robinett," 
one of the redoubts to become famous on the morrow. Many 
brave officers and men of Iowa, in the division of Davies, had 
fallen during the day, but Corinth was still ours. 

The Tenth and the Seventeenth Iowa in Hamilton's division 
just to the right, but fronting the other way, had been only lis- 
teners during the day to this combat of their comrades, under 
Davies. Toward evening, however, when Davies was driven 
back so far, came Hamilton's opportunity. The Rebels were 
now past his left, and his whole division commenced a grand 
wheel on its center fronting the line west instead of east and 
directly on to the left flank of the rebel columns. Thick brush 



164 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

and timber made the movement difficult and hazardous. Ham- 
ilton's right brigade, under Buford, shot off at a tangent, got out 
of place, too far to the right, and the movement nearly failed. 
Successful, it would have resulted in the destruction of the rebel 
left wing and ended the battle in an hour. Even as it was, it 
checked the rebel pursuit to the town, and shortly brought the 
battle to a close for the day. Hamilton's left brigade, in the 
move, threw forward the Seventeenth and Tenth Iowa and 
attacked the Rebels, doing some harm and capturing a lot of 
prisoners; but lacking support from their right, they fell back 
and bivouacked in the darkness. 

At the very hour that day that the Rebels attacked Davies so 
hotly in the center, they marched against McKean's division on 
the left. The attack was equally severe — the result much the 
same as in front of Davies; the union forces gallantly fighting 
most of the day, but falling back from position to position. In 
the forenoon, a very severe conflict took place at the front of 
this division, at the point where the Memphis railroad crosses 
the outer fortifications. Many men were lost on both sides. 
Gen. Mc Arthur commanded the brigades fighting so gallantly 
at this point. 

So far, no Iowa troops had been engaged at the left, but at 3 
p. m. the Crocker brigade was ordered to cover another move- 
ment to the rear. Col. Crocker commanded the brigade, Lt.- 
Col. Belknap the Fifteenth Iowa, Col. Reid, being sick; Lt.-Col. 
Sanders the Sixteenth, Lt.-Col. Hall the Eleventh, and Lt.- 
Col. John Shane the Thirteenth. 

Crocker was directed to attack the Rebels and drive them back, 
while the rest of our line should retire. " He executed the order 
in fine style," said the division commander. " The brigade con- 
ducted itself with conspicuous gallantry, and maneuvered with 
all the coolness and precision of an ordinary drill." It was 
fine praise for gallant regiments. Belknap and Sanders were 
especially mentioned in the report. The prompt military action 
of the brigade enabled the new line to be formed with success, 
and sundown saw the whole division of our left grouped about 
the breastworks at College Hill in the west edge of the town. 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 



165 




166 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

The Rebels had not pursued. The firing had ceased. The 
battle for that day was done, and Corinth was barely ours. The 
union army was driven into the inner breastworks, and with the 
early morning they, too, would be assaulted. 

That night, the two armies lay under arms in the bright moon- 
light within six hundred yards of each other. The Rebels 
believed Corinth already won. In the town, the houses, the 
hospitals and the two hotels were filled with the union wounded. 
Many were dying. The writer will not forget leaving the 
bivouac in the moonlight that night, to soothe, for an hour, a 
friend lying in the little Tishimingo hotel with a rebel bullet in 
his breast — nor the horrible scenes by the dim light in the room, 
where the surgeons 1 knives were busy cutting away the arms and 
legs of the poor victims of the day — nor the groans and cries of 
men mangled beyond help of knife or medicine. The scene 
was worse than the battle, and it was a relief to get out into 
the peaceful moonlight where lay other thousands only waiting 
the daybreak to rush together and come from the deadly conflict 
mangled and torn like these. 

Tired and exhausted as the army was, the moon shone so 
brightly that the men lying in the long lines of the bivouac 
could scarcely sleep. Many hearts there in the lines turned to 
northern homes that night, feeling it was the last time their 
thoughts could ever be turned to them, as with a prayer they 
bade them a silent farewell. And the brave soldiers of the South, 
lying there in lines but six hundred yards away, and in the same 
peaceful moonlight, had they no hearts, no homes, mothers, 
fathers, sweethearts, wives and sisters, toward whom they, too, 
were silently wafting prayers and farewells? Ah! cruel, cruel 



war 



All the night long the pickets and sentries paced their beats. 
Not a shot was fired, scarcely a loud word spoken, but in the 
quiet was heard, far on the flanks, the rumbling of artillery 
wheels and the tramp of regiments getting into position for the 
morrow. Rosecrans's lines had all been drawn in to correspond 
with the semi-circle of the inner forts. Hamilton's division still 
held the right, with its left at Fort Powell. Stanley was now at the 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 167 

center, holding Forts Williams and Robinett, and the Memphis 
railroad. McKean's division was at the left about College Hill 
and Davies's men were between Stanley's and Hamilton's divisions. 
The whole battle line was a mile long. The forts were rather 
strong, protected by abatis. They were well armed and their 
defenders were brave men accustomed to battle. The Rebels 
were not less brave — and their numbers that night were as two 
to one. So far, they had been victorious at Corinth. 

Van Dorn arranged his lines to assault in three columns. 
Lovell was to charge in on Rosecrans's left, Maury at the center, 
and Hebert on Rosecrans's right. Hebert was to attack first 
and give the signal for the others, while artillery in abundance 
was placed to fire at short distance. 

Maury was to charge straight into Corinth from between the 
two railroads where so much of the rebel army was now massed 

At three o'clock in the morning, Rosecrans lay down for an 
hour's rest, but the first morning twilight brought with it the 
boom of rebel cannon planted in the night close to the union 
lines. The great moon went down, and the red battle sun rose 
on Corinth. Hasty and last breakfasts were snatched from 
haversacks, canteens were filled with water and the union lines 
fell in; but there was a halt. The rebel commander at the left 
was sick — his division did not move as ordered at daylight, and 
the signal was not given. The rebel center, however, advanced 
and became engaged, and by nine the whole rebel army was 
moving, and the battle of Corinth was again in progress. 

The thundering of the artillery of the two armies was terrific. 
In the smoke about the redoubts and the batteries, the white 
tongued flames could be seen spitefully darting, while the sound 
of many metals and many calibered guns drowning the crashes 
of musketry, seemed for moments like the clanging of a thou- 
sand great bells. Then there would be a momentary hush, only 
to be followed by the sudden thunder of some fierce battery 
whose guns, fired in concert, were as suddenly answered by 
others fiercer and louder still. 

In the midst of the awful cannonade, the rebel columns were 
massing and moving to the charge. The first shock struck the 



168 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

division of Gen. Davies and the left of the line of Gen. Hamil- 
ton. The Rebels, four brigades of them, had come in solid 
columns from the woods, deploying and lengthening their line, 
as with bowed heads they advanced in the storm of bullets. 
Most of Davies's division gave way in confusion, and the bat- 
teries and redoubts they were supporting were captured by the 
enemy. Only Sullivan's brigade, in which was the Tenth Iowa, 
stood its ground and poured a fierce fire into the assaulting col- 
umn. The union line retiring for two or three hundred yards, 
the contest with the Rebels, now in possession of the redoubts, 
was continued under a heavy fire, until the Seventeenth Iowa 
and other regiments, also of Sullivan's brigade, rose from where 
they had been lying in line, advanced, and with a charge and a 
yell drove the Rebels back. It was in this charge that the Sev- 
enteenth Iowa captured the flag of the Fortieth Mississippi. 
Corporal King, of Company "G," captured the flag, and its 
bearer. 

This flag was sent to the Governor of Iowa, and is one of the 
proud trophies of the state. The Tenth Iowa received for its 
gallantry in this crisis of the battle the honorable mention of 
the commander of the brigade, as did the Seventeenth. 

The Fifth Iowa, the heroes of Iuka, also fought that day in 
Hamilton's division, but farther to the right and with trifling 
loss. Maj. Banbury of the Fifth led the Seventeenth in its 
splendid charge. 

None of the regiments of Davies's division fought better under 
the fierce assaults of the enemy than did the Second and Seventh 
Iowa — the latter commanded by Col. Elliott W. Rice, and the 
former by Lt.-Col. Mills. Both regiments stood their ground 
when others were flying, and for a time held their line without 
support. " Brave men " — said the commander of the brigade— 
" I could not bear to see them slaughtered, and so ordered them 
to fall back." Even then they rallied again, charged the enemy, 
and the victory, on their part of the line, was won. 

In this charge the brave Col. Mills of the Second received a 
wound that cost him his life. A nobler man Iowa never lost in 
battle. A brave soldier, a Christian gentleman, and one of the 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCH IE. 169 

sincerest patriots that ever lived, his loss was universally lamented 
in his command and among the thousands who loved him at 
home.* 

While the terrible assault was going on in front of the 
divisions of Davies and Hamilton, the union center, under Stan- 
ley, was repelling a still fiercer storm. Some of the rebel 
Maury's troops in the first onslaught toward the right had not 
only taken Battery Powell, but had charged into the town itself- 
They were as quickly driven out by the left of Hamilton's 
division and put in retreat with terrible loss. Two of Maury's 
regiments stormed straight against Battery Robinett, where 
Stanley's men defended. They not only stormed against it — they 
gallantly went into it, when a desperate hand to hand conflict 
ensued for its possession. 

Such fighting scarcely took place elsewhere during the war as was 
witnessed inside and around Battery Robinett. The rebel Gen. 
Rogers, his flag in one hand, his revolver in the other, leaped the 
ditch and was shot dead, calling for his brave men to follow. 
They did follow, and the parapet, the ditch, and the ground 
about the breastwork, were covered with their slain. Brave 
Ohio troops rose up from behind the works as one man, and with 
hot volleys and piercing bayonets drove the Rebels out of the fort 
down through the abatis, trampling their own dead as they ran' 
pursued by the crashing cannon balls that followed them into 
the woods. The terrific assaults had failed, and the battle of 
Corinth was won to the union armies. 

The losses of the Rebels had been very great, numbering not less 
than 6,000 killed and wounded, and over 2,000 prisoners. They 
lost besides some 3,000 stand of arms, 2 cannon and 14 battle 
flags. 

The union army had 27 officers and 328 enlisted men killed, 
1,841 officers and men wounded, 324 missing. 

The state of Iowa lost in the battle of Corinth 531 officers and 
men, mostly killed and wounded. Of these losses, 40 fell to the 

*Mrs. Col. Miils's was one of the most pathetic cases of the war. Gen. 
Hackleman, commanding the brigade, was her father, and the message that 
Corinth brought to her was that her father, her brother and her husband had 
fallen in the battle. 



170 IOWA 'IN WAR TIMES. 

Tenth regiment, to the Seventeenth 22, to the Second L01, to the 
Seventh 122, to the Eighth 37, to the Twelfth 39, to the Four- 
teenth 14, to the Eleventh 21, to the Thirteenth 15, to the Fif- 
teenth 86, to the Sixteenth 27, to the Second battery 6, and 1 to 
the Second cavalry. 

The Second Iowa battery commanded by Capt. N. T. Spoor, 
with Lieutenants Walling and Reed in charge of sections, did 
splendid service, firing the last ball of ammunition in the chests. 
The Second cavalry was everywhere about Corinth in every con- 
ceivable sort of service. " Hatch's cavalry is the eye of our army," 
said Rosecrans. By night and by day they were in the saddle. 
It was a trusted regiment, with energetic officers and dashing 
men. Once they had been brigaded with the gallant Sheridan. 
Perhaps they took on his dash and his vigor. 

Many Iowa officers fell at Corinth. Many, for heroic action, 
received honorable mention in the reports of commanders. The 
Second infantry not only lost Colonels Baker and Mills; Lieu- 
tenants Huntington, Snowden, Bing, and Neal, were also left 
cold in death on the battle field. Lieutenants Parker, Blake, 
Twombly and Suiter and Capt. Howard were wounded. So too 
was every member of the color guard — Doolittle, Norris, Phillips, 
Seiberlich, Wise and Stewart. Col. Weaver complimented in 
high terms Lieutenants Parker, Duffield, Marsh, Wilson, Tisdale, 
Suter, Hamill, Hall, Blake, Duckworth, Ballinger, Twombly and 
McCord; and Captains Cowles, McCullough, Mastic, Howard, 
Ensign and Davis; Surgeon Pyle, Sergt. Campbell and Lieut. 
Lynde. Capt. Ensign captured a battle flag, and was the first to 
reach a battery captured in a charge. Adjt. Geo. L. Godfrey 
received especial praise from Col. Weaver for gallantry. Sergt. 
Lewis, in charge of his company, rendered good service, as did 
Sergt. James Terry. 

The losses in the Seventh Iowa were severe. The men, as 
ever, had fought as heroes. Lt.-Col. Parrott, who received the 
highest praise from his commander for coolness and bravery, 
was wounded. So too were sturdy, gallant Maj. McMullin, Capt. 
C. F. Conn, and Lieutenants B. B. Gale, J. B. Morrison, J. B. 
Hope, Frank A. Irvin and Geo. J. Bennett. Capt. Benton K. 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 171 

Smith, a gallant and noble young man, was killed in the last hour 
of the battle. Many of the officers received the special mention of 
Col. Rice. Among them were Captains Hedges, Mahon, Irvin and 
Reineger, as well as Lieutenants Dillin, Sergent, Hope, Lough- 
ridge, Irwin, McCormick, Bennett, Bess, Gale and Morrison. Sergt. 
Maj. Cameron also received special notice for bravery, being 
wounded, and Color Sergt. Aleck Field, and Akers and Craig of 
the color guard. All of the color guard, with a single excep- 
tion, were either killed or wounded. The competent surgeon of 
the regiment, Lake, was also praised in the report of the battle 
for having nobly done his duty, helping the wounded, with his 
assistant, day and night. " More than one-third of those taken 
into action, " says the colonel in his report, " are wounded, or lie 
dead beneath the battle field." A noble record! 

Among the wounded in the " Union brigade, 1 ' were Capt. A. E. 
Webb, and Lieuts. J. R. C. Hunter and A. L. Palmer of the 
Twelfth Iowa. Lt. Tichenor, a meritorious officer of the Eighth, 
was killed. Adjt D. B. Henderson, later colonel of the Forty-sixth 
Iowa, was distinguished for his bravery at Corinth, and lost a leg 
in the battle. 

The Tenth Iowa lost no officers at Corinth, though it had 
fought bravely. Acting Lt.-Col. Holson, Acting Maj. Jackson 
Orr, and Adjt. Manning, received especial mention from the com- 
mander of the regiment, Maj. McCalla, for gallantry, and the 
men of the regiment were much praised. 

Lieutenants Garrett and Morris of the Seventeenth Iowa were 
wounded. Lieut. Hall was complimented by his commander, and 
the whole regiment received just praise from Gen. Rosecrans 
himself. Maj. Banbury of the Fifth, who led the Seventeenth 
Iowa in the battle, was highly complimented. 

Crocker's Iowa brigade lost 149 officers and men, 86 of 
whom were from the gallant Fifteenth, under Lt.-Col. Belknap. 
Of 11 killed in the regiment, 3 were officers — Lieutenants 
John D. Kinsman, Wm. Cathcart and Ruf us H. Eldridge — gal- 
lant officers and good men. Better young officers were not in 
the service. Lt.-Col. Belknap mentioned for gallant conduct 
the names of Captains Kittle, Hanks, Madison, and Seevers;also 



172 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Adjt. Pomutz, Lieutenants Wilkins, Whitenack, Porter, Rogers, 
Throckmorton, Miller and King. Maj. Cunningham, wounded, 
received especial mention, as did Corp. Black, who was wounded 
while bravely clinging to the colors, and Color Corporal Wells, 
Surgeon Gibbon, Quartermaster Higley and Sergeants Brown 
(wounded) and Elliot, were likewise mentioned by Lt.-Col. Bel- 
knap. 

Lt.-Col. Sanders, of the Sixteenth Iowa, was badly wounded 
while most gallantly leading his command, and was succeeded 
by Maj. Purcell. Color Sergt. Samuel Duffin was honorably 
mentioned for great gallantry in saving the flag, as were Color 
Corporals McElhany, Eighnoy and Kuhn. One lieutenant, in 
striking contrast to the bravery of his regiment, was seized 
with a panic, deserted his company and ran from the field. 

The Eleventh Iowa did its duty under fire, though only a part 
of the regiment was actively engaged. Captains Kennedy and 
Walker, with their companies of the Thirteenth, were praised 
for gallant fighting. Gen. McKean gave high praise to Lt.-Col. 
Belknap of the Fifteenth, Lt.-Col. Hall and Maj. Abercrombie 
of the Eleventh, the latter a hero of the Mexican war, and of 
Wilson's Creek; to Lt.-Col. Shaw, commanding the Thirteenth, 
Maj. Van Hasen, of the same regiment, and Col. Ried, of the 
Fifteenth, who left a sick bed to be with his regiment. He also 
complimented for special service Capt. W. T. Clark, assistant 
adjutant general, Lieutenants M. A. Higley and G. S. Hampton. 
The Crocker brigade lost 146. 

Col. Crocker, commander of the brigade, spoke in the highest 
praise of Lt.-Col. Belknap, always brave and always competent 
to command. Crocker also complimented Col. Sanders in high 
terms, as well as Majors Cunningham of the Fifteenth and 
Purcell of the Sixteenth regiments, for gallantry and duty 
well done. Adjt. James Wilson and Lieut. Lanstrum received 
especial mention. 

The division commander reported Crocker himself as entitled 
to the highest credit for skill and bravery, and for the splendid 
discipline in battle of the Crocker brigade. The battle made 
Crocker a brigadier general. 



BATTLE OF CORINTH AND THE HATCHIE. 173 

That night, among the dead and dying, the union soldiers 
kept watch over the battle field. Early on the 5th the pursuit 
of the Rebels commenced. Owing to McKean's division taking 
the wrong road, and overburdening itself with trains, delays 
occurred that were fatal to perfect success, though the roads 
were strewn with deserted arms, ammunition wagons and guns 
of the flying army. 

Gen. Hurlbut hurried from Bolivar with a large force of 
troops to head the Rebels off at the crossing of the Hatchie 
river. A seven hours' battle was fought at the bridge. The 
Rebels were driven back, but by quick marching escaped over 
the river at another point. It was the old story of our war — 
somebody had blundered. 

With a victorious army on its heels — a fresh army, and a deep 
river at its front, why were not the demoralized aDd flying 
Rebels captured or destroyed? As it was, the fierce battle at 
the Hatchie had been in vain. 

Among the heroic regiments that had marched from Bolivar 
to the battle at the river, was the Third Iowa — heroes of Blue 
Mills and Shiloh, now fighting in the brigade of Gen. Lauman, 
of Iowa. The noble regiment with its ranks thinned down to 
three hundred men on duty, was commanded by Capt. Trumbull 
For its heroism in the battle it received the warmest praise of 
brigade and division commanders. 

Once during the conflict it charged across the Hatchie bridge 
under a terrific fire from the enemy on the opposite bluffs. Once 
it was led just over the river into a small crowded space swept 
by the fire of the enemy — without room to deploy, or opportu- 
nity to defend from the raking, enfilading fire over, around and 
about. Yet the heroes bravely held their ground, and suffered 
rather than retreat. No cavalry charging at Balaklava did duty 
more nobly, knowing that some one had blundered, than did the 
Third Iowa at the Hatchie river. 

Once out of the death-trap and deployed, the little line flanked 
the bluffs and charging the enemy, shared in the victory. Had 
Rosecrans's pursuing troops been properly up at that moment, 
the rebel army would have been lost. 



174 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Ill the charge over the Hatchie bridge, many were shot down; 
among them, one, a friend of the writer, the memory of whom 
long years and change and circumstance and death have not 
been able to obliterate. Noble, chivalrous, Christian soldier, 
falling at the very cannon's mouth on the Hatchie river ! * 

Like other thousands of the subordinate officers and soldiers 
of the union army whose names the trump of fame may never 
sound, he was a hero — bravely dying because it was his duty. 
Let a saved country cherish the memory of them all ! 

The Third regiment lost in a few minutes 60 killed and 
wounded — including more than half the commissioned officers. 
Though it had but few killed, many were badly wounded. 
Among the latter were Capt. E. J. Weiser, Capt. Kostman of 
Company C, Lieutenants D. W. Foote, W. B. Hamill, C. L. 
Anderson and Simon Gary. Lieutenants McMurtrie, Burdick 
and Cushman, with Sergt.-Maj. Montague and Color Bearer 
Edwards, received honorable mention from the regimental com- 
mander, as did also Lieutenants Scobey, Garey, Lakin and Aber- 
nethy. 

The struggle on the Hatchie river was the closing scene of the 
battle of Corinth. " The history of this war," said Gen. Ster- 
ling Price, the commander of the rebel left wing, ''contains no 
bloodier page, perhaps, than that which will record this fiercely 
contested battle of Corinth." 

*Lieut. Win .Dodd was killed by a cannon ball striking him on the head 
just as the regiment was charging at the bridge. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THANKSGIVING DAY. 
1862. 

" Thank God, and hurrah for Gen. Burnside ! " wrote the 
Governor of Iowa to Asst. P. M. Genl. John A. Kasson, on 
November 12th, 1862. Gen. McClellan was at last removed 
from command in Virginia, and that was something to be thank- 
ful for, though Burnside himself within a month laid down his 
command, after signal defeat and appalling losses. But Gen. 
McClellan was no longer to lead the eastern armies to defeat — 
and this the North and the state of Iowa especially, regarded 
with sincere thanksgiving. 

The splendid victories in the West, of Ft. Henry, Donelson, 
Pea Ridge and Island No. 10, were almost overlooked in the 
presence of continued disasters in Virginia. It seemed that all 
progress made with the war in the West was to be overbalanced 
by defeats in the East. No wonder that in the West, and espe- 
cially among western soldiers in the field, the feeling against 
Geo. B. McClellan ran high and bitter. He had, in their opin- 
ion, been guilty of delays — of procrastinations unbearable, in 
the face of an enemy. When chided by the President for his 
delays, his answers had been insubordinate. " I tell you plainly," 
he dared write to the War Department, " if I save this army 
now, I owe no thanks to you, nor to any person in Washington. 
You have done your best to sacrifice this army." 

It seemed as if the government feared the man who was lead- 
ing its armies to disaster in the East. Private citizens saw the 
rocks ahead, but the administration seemed paralyzed. The 
soldiers of the West looked on in astonishment. Why was such 
a colossal failure left in command? 

(175) 



176 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

" There is an impression abroad out West, Mr. President, that 
you do not dare to remove Gen. McClellan." This was said to 
Mr. Lincoln by Gov. Kirkwood of Iowa, at the time of the 
Altoona meeting of governors. " I would remove him to-mor- 
row, if convinced it were for the good of the service, 1 ' responded 
the President. Mr. Lincoln would not act on mere clamor for 
the removal of even an extremely unpopular man. He wished 
sincerely to do justice. Later, he too saw, and was convinced of 
the unfitness of McClellan to command. 

It was an October midnight of 1862, that McClellan was wak- 
ened from his sleep, and by the light of the dim candle in his 
tent read the letter from the President ordering him to turn his 
command over to Gen. Burnside and to report himself at Tren- 
ton, New Jersey. He was virtually under arrest. That mid- 
night ended Gen. McClellan's career with the army of the United 
States, and no wonder the Governor of Iowa thanked God and that 
the people of Iowa were glad. Now victory at both ends of the 
line was hoped for. So far there had been little in the East but 
discouragements. Great battles there had been — but small vic- 
tories. In the West with leaders like Rosecrans,* Grant, Pope 
and Curtis, the tide flowed steadily to victory for the North. 

Political feeling was changing. Not a few genuine war 
democrats began to realize, as Col. Crocker had, that, after all, 

*Gov. Kirkwood had great confidence in the star of Rosecrans. On Novem- 
ber 4th, of 1862, he wrote: 

General: I have heard so much of you from the Iowa boys you led so 
bravely and so successfully at Iuka and Corinth, and from my old friend 
Maj. Hepburn, I scarcely realize that we are strangers, and that it is neces- 
sary I shall apologize for the liberty 1 have taken in addressing you. Please 
accept the fact for the apology. The eyes of the people of Iowa, General, 
are upon you, and their hearts are with you. They believe and they rejoice 
in the belief that in you they have an active, earnest fighting soldier. They 
know that the salvation of the country depends upon having such at the 
head of our armies. They confidently trust that your glorious and gallant 
deeds at luka and Corinth will be equalled (they cannot be surpassed) in 
your new command, and that your example will stimulate others to like 
action . 

Never in the history of our people have they so prayed for the " coming 
man " as they have for many months past, and now, as they have found him, 
1 ardently wish you had with you, to share your dangers and your glory, the 
Iowa boys who have just left, and the many thousands more as good as they, 
just marching to the field. Your obdt. servant, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 

Maj. Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, Louisville, Kentucky. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1862. 177 

slavery was the cause of the war, and as such should be put. for- 
ever beyond doing harm. It was the words and the encourage- 
ment of brave, true conservatives like Crocker,* not less than 
the patriotism of his own party, that helped sustain the hands of 
the governor. The time was rapidly coming when he could turn 
for help to every man in the state, provided that man were loyal. 

In Iowa, the fires of patriotism still burned, if not quite with 
the zeal of the Sumter days, yet with a faith and a fervor that 
were willing to bide their time. The leading men of the state 
labored with but one thought — the upholding of the hands of 
Abraham Lincoln in his effort to save the government of the 
United States. Almost every public act related in some way to 
the war. Almost every individual act, if of a patriot, had in its 
bearings something to do with the welfare of the soldiers in the 
field or with the regiments marching to quarters in the state. 

Iowa had already furnished more men — many more, than its 
quota for the new regiments; but soldiers were called for to fill up 
the old regiments now depleted by battle. On this call, the state 

*Camp of the 13th Regiment Iowa Vol's, Jefferson City. 

Dear Governor: I have received your " Inaugural and wbile I may not 
from my standpoint altogether agree with you in regard to the causes imme- 
diately producing this war, I certainly do agree with you fully in respect to 
the objects to be attained and the manner of conducting it. 

I do not think that the restoration of the Union as it has existed since 
1854, is at all desirable. And unless the slavery question can be " forever 
placed at rest" so that it cannot be the subject of legislation, or the theme 
for speech making in the national congress tee had better have no Union. 
Men who claim to be conservative, talk about the easy restoration of the 
government as it was before the revolt of the South. And I suppose by that 
they mean that all the parties shall lay down their arms, and that the old 
congress, composed of Jeff. Davis, Toombs, Slidell, Benjamin, Wigfall & Co., 
shah resume the discussion of the Dred .Scott decision, and the right of the 
South to carry their slaves into the territories. If such a peace was possi- 
ble I do not regard it at all desirable. Such a peace could not be permanent, 
and the scenes of the present crisis would soon be re-enacted. The govern- 
ment must adopt some policy in conducting this war that will accomplish 
the end of placing the slavery question where there can be no apprehension 
felt about it, so that it may be emphatically a domestic and not a national 
institution. Anything short of this will be a failure. 

The i-egiment is now in fine condition; the boys have about recovered from 
the measles and mumps, and consider themselves ready for service. We do 
not wish the people of Iowa to understand or believe that we are at all 
uncomfortable or unhappy. Certainly we are not. If they will visit our 
camp of an evening they will find as jolly a crowd as they ever visited and 
will be astonished at the immense amount of music and fun. * * * 

Your friend, 

M. M. Crocker. 
I. W. T.— 12 



1" ; IOWA Cf WAB 

nAiaJ the unpatriotic action of certain counties 

._:;:-.„ -- . _ : . . _ : : :«iri ::■:.: : : ;-::-i ; -: In 
these laggard districts, many men w- Jiome reaping the 

advantages that cane of inflated values and nei b — 

their loyal competitors being mostly at the froaJ runs on 

their shoul<iers. Some of these laggards, too. were disloyaL It 
scarcely req i - recall that the precincts so backward 

in volunteering were usually politically democratic It was an un- 
pleasant comment on democratic k : — proportion- 
ately of the party were in the army from the state of Iowa.* 

ia election held in November. 1862. the I wa - Idiers 
- . - .._• .1 : ..- :.;._; - It *% ill::? : : :: .- r- . .. . :.:. " ..'.-:- \ 

and only 4.115 on the democratic tieke: -c-tion a year 

". .-; . :!:■;- in i ------ - 7 - 

figures are startling and speak for themsel-- 

11 -kwood determined to eompel sueh : 
their quota of men by volunteering refac mfaxe :he draft law 

I ze first day of the new year. It was not fair that the 
riotic should hear all the state'fl burdens of the war, and the 
disloyal reap all its advant =. . 

Tie natter now rests with your own people."* wro: 
governor to the dilatory disrri : 19,1869 All and every 

means have been exhausted to avert conscription.'* 

7 : the sake of the state's hor . -nor hoped that all 

•Mavtoketa. Aug-: * 



Joseph P. Eatos. 



THAXKSGrVLS'G DAT. 1862 179 

quotas would be filled by volunteering — but 7.000 men were still 
wanting for the old regiments. The various calls on :. 
up to this date made a total of 49.405 men. By an earnest effort 
in the districts that were backward, the 7.000 volunteers were 
partly raised. It transpired, too. as has been said, that the si 
had been ahead on its former quota of troops: hence Iowa i 
for the the time at least, excused from the draft.* 

It was probably fortunate that it was so. for by this time the 
disloyal of the state were thoroughly organized into associations 
known as " Knights of the Golden Circle." as well as into other 
bands. Their purpose was to oppose the war. to resist the 
draft, to encourage desertion, and to prevent volunteering. 
They rapidly became secret assassins and were despised, hated, 
and feared. There was nothing fair or honorable in their pur- 
poses, their methods, or their history, and they did great harm 
by their secret and venomous ways of discouraging the war. 
N : a single noble impulse stirred among them, nor a loyal 
heart-throb. They were not only traitors to their country and 
to their neighbors — they were destroyers of order — and. when 
opportunity offered, were murderers. That they acted in secret. 
made them ten times more dangerous. 

Though the state had furnished more men than were required 
up to 1563. technically she was a little behind and a draft 
still possible. This, the disloyal element secretly resolved to 
prevent, and armed for the purpose. Its designs were well 
known by the governor, through the department of H. M. 
Hoxie. the efficient provost marshal of the state, by whose zeal 
and patriotism, more than by that of any other man's, the ba^e 
designs of these secret assassins were frustrated. He was as hon- 
orable as zealous, and as able as patriotic. By him and his agents, 
every move of the secret conclave of state scoundrels wi> 
watched and usually check-mated. Spite of it all, a feverish 
dangerous excitement was kept up. The compromising le:: 
of the " Knights of the Golden Circle" fell into the hands of the 
executive. The names and deeds of many of its members were 
matters of record, and the affidavits as to their baseness are still 

•At a later date 



180 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

in the state's archives. A full knowledge of their intentions did 
not make them less dangerous to good order and peace. 

" If a draft is to be ordered in this state," wrote the governor 
to the authorities, " there should, as a precaution, be arms in the 
hands of all loyal men." The governor not only asked for arms, 
he demanded regiments — so great in his opinion was the peril to 
which Iowa was subjected by these treasonable assassins, while 
her loyal soldiers were absent, fighting for their country. Many of 
these " Knights" were the paid agents of the Rebels in the South. 
Many were simply desperadoes seeking adventure. Many were 
broken down political aspirants who were no longer trusted by 
their neighbors, and many were the ignorant scum of the dem- 
ocratic party, misled into wrong doing. But all were Democrats. 
There was not aRepublican among them. 

Gov. Kirkwood not only demanded arms and permission to 
organize special regiments to meet these miscreants in case of 
resistance and collision; he begged that the United States laws 
might be enforced in Iowa — that men should be arrested for 
treasonable conduct and, if guilty, quickly and severely punished. 
He protested vigorously against the arbitrary arrest of men, if 
only to be followed by sudden dismissal without conviction or 
trial. Such indecision had been common, as in the case of 
Mahoney. But protests by the governor never thoroughly 
awakened the government at Washington into a full knowledge 
that bands of traitors hung like a pest over some of the counties 
of loyal Iowa. The people of Iowa in general were so devoted, 
so patriotic, so loyal, it seemed impossible. 

Not the strong, prompt hand of the government at last made 
Iowa traitors hide away in fear and shame — but the victories of 
her soldiers in the field. In the roar of the victorious guns of 
Vicksburg and Gettysburg that coming summer, the Iowa trait- 
ors began to look for a day of reckoning. 

That Thanksgiving day of 1862, saw forty Iowa regiments of 
infantry either in the field or preparing to march. There were 
besides, five regiments of cavalry and three batteries of artillery. 
For all this the state gave thanks, for better soldiers never 
marched to the sound of drum and bugle. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1862. 181 

As in the year before, all the loyal men in the state were 
bending their energies to the aid of the soldiers at the front or 
their families left at home. Counties, towns, townships and 
villages levied taxes to raise funds for bounties and aid. Socie- 
ties for the relief of soldiers 1 families existed everywhere in the 
state. Private men and women strained every nerve and econo- 
mized in every direction, to help the soldiers. Many a soldier's 
widow's flour-barrel was filled by invisible hands. Many an 
soldier's orphan's feet were clad, and no one knew by whom. 
All loyal men gave of all they had. The state officers knew no 
limits of time or labor of their own that could advance the good 
of the common cause. 

" 1 will do all I can so long as my life lasts for our Iowa 
soldiers," wrote Adjt. Gen. Baker to Hon. James Harlan. His 
was the noble spirit animating every loyal heart in the state. 

Gov. Kirkwood's sympathies for the soldiers were unbounded. 
Their interests were always preferred to his own. Once the 
governor of Wisconsin started a movement for doubling the pay 
of the hard working war governors. u But," said Kirk wood in 
a note to Senator Grimes on the subject, " though we have all 
been doing labor as great as belongs to officers much better paid, 
and our work is as important as any done for the government, 
yet I know that our regiments require more medical aid. I 
much prefer that Congress should give an additional surgeon to 
each Iowa regiment than any pay to its governors." 

Again writing to Capt. S. M. Archer, referring to certain 
injustice and wrongs done himself, he says: "I shall bear it — 
and you should bear yours. Captain, there are thousands of 
men in the ranks as good as either of us, and when I am dis- 
posed to complain of the extent of my labors and the injustice I 
at times receive, I think of these poor fellows, and try to bear 
all cheerfully." 

The labors of the executive's and adjutant general's offices 
were as astounding in those days as after Wilson's Creek, and 
were increased as then by the ignorance and neglect of many 
officers. To this day, proper reports of some of the regiments 
and of many events are wanting. To one of the colonels, Gen. 



182 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Baker wrote: " 1 have no official information of even the exist- 
ence of your command " — so seldom and so imperfectly had this 
officer reported. Descriptions of certain battles were disposed 
of by certain officers in less space than is usually required 
for depicting a cock fight. One colonel reporting a battle for- 
got mention of all participants except himself. Another, depict- 
ing an insignificant skirmish to the governor, mentioned as worthy 
of distinguished honor the name of every single officer in his 
command. " They were all heroes. 1 ' His list of casualties, how- 
ever, showed but four men injured. Many of these reports, 
blameless of discrimination or sense, or justice to subordinate 
officers and soldiers, filled the office of the adjutant general, and 
had to be amended and added to from other sources in order to 
make a record. This and the endless questioning for instruc- 
tions and interpretations of rules, and the constant letters asking 
for favor and promotion, made the chief offices anything but 
beds of roses. 

But Baker and the governor bore it all, with the added re- 
proaches for things that nobody understood, with perfect suavity, 
great patience and patriotism.* 

The governor arranged a set of rules for promotion to office. 
They were just and simple, but pleased nobody. Politicians in 
shoulder-straps, who had never in their lives been bound by a 
rule, and seldom by a principle, saw no sense in doing things un- 
der order, and chafed under the restraint.f Some wanted their 
commissions dated away back, to outrank their comrades. Some 
wanted to name all the officers themselves, when they had no 
right to name any. Some " pocketed 11 the commissions sent 
them for their subordinates, and some used old grudges against 
fellow-officers to warrant themselves in defeating such comrades 

*Speaking of his own labors and anxieties, Kirkwoocl writes to a private 
in Company H, of the Second Iowa: " I would be content if I could earn, as 
a result of it all, a name as honored as that of the humblest member of the 
gallant Iowa Second." 

fThe Governor sought to carry out these rules in good faith, though pro- 
motions under them often annoyed others and embarrassed him. His own 
plan was to do as he directed Gen. Bussey to do in case of a certain promo- 
tion: "The position, you find, is a delicate one, but do just what you think 
is right, and let the consequences take care of themselves." 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1862. 183 

for place. Men who were heroes in battle, were often entirely 
ignored, while favorites would figure in the reports as deserving 
honor and promotion. The governor's " rules" tended to check 
some of these evils; but they made their violators his enemies. 
He was accused of favoritism himself. He had numerous rel- 
atives. Some of them were fit for office; but for granting them 
place, he was accused of nepotism. Mistakes of all kinds oc- 
curred as to original appointments, because, of necessity, the 
governor, in his selections, relied largely on the judgment of 
others.* 

All the little politicians wanted to be brigadiers. They could 
not be — and they blamed the governor for hopes blasted, and 
plans short of fruition. 

While the greatest efforts to sustain the government were 
progressing in 1862, business in the state fell behind. Iowa 
then, as now, was eminently an agricultural and grazing state. 
The crops were good, but the markets were very low, and cur- 
rency scarce. Eastern manufacturers were growing rich by the 
war, while Iowa farmers were compelled to accept for their prod- 
ucts such prices as were dictated in other states. There were 
few railroads, and freights were dear, and, though the harvests 
yielded extremely well, the strain of the war was being visibly 
felt. Few in the state were prospering. 

Adjt.-Gen. Baker hoped to relieve the situation somewhat by 
demanding some of the army contracts for people in the state* 
Beef, pork, wool, flour, corn, oats and hay, Iowa had in surplus. 
" Why not let our citizens furnish part of these/' wrote Baker. 
" We are furnishing as many men, and as good men, to fight 
our country's battles, as any state in the Union; why not let 
Iowa have some of the contracts? We can fill them as well 
and as cheaply as others. This is a matter of importance to the 
government itself, and of vast importance to every man, woman 
and child in Iowa." 

*Somebody wrote urging the governor to promote some boy in the cav- 
alry — asking him to remember the mother of the boy of Athens. " It's all 
right" replied the governor, "only I have neglected the classics so long, 1 

don't remember who in the 'the mother of the boy of Athens' was, or who 

this boy was either. Please enlighten me all around." 



184 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Few army contracts, however, came to Iowa's citizens, spite of 
her ability to supply the country cheaply. Rings of politicians 
and eastern hangers-on about Washington usually secured the 
government's wasted millions for bad supplies and shoddy cloth- 
ing. Iowa farmers were not tricksters enough to get fat army 
contracts. 

That autumn of 1862, for the first time, saw Iowa grain fields 
reaped by women, and her broad meadows mown by girls whose 
brothers and lovers were in the war. It was a primitive age 
again, with women in the fields and the men off fighting their 
country's battles. The old men were in the companies of the 
home guards, and drilled on the village green — the very green 
on which their sons were mustered before going to battle. 
Those sons! Many of them were heroes already, leading battal- 
ions to the mouths of rebel cannon — charging squadrons — 
storming forts — marching through swamps and over plains, 
bearing aloft the starry banner. But many, ah, how many! 
were already in soldiers' graves. Thousands lingered their lives 
out in southern prisons — thousands sickened and died in hospi- 
tals, and thousands left their life blood on the red battle field. 
They were worthy of their country — worthy of their gray- 
haired patriot sires drilling there on the village green. 

What recollections spring up to him who was sometimes in 
an Iowa town or village in those War Times! Who will not 
instantly recall the relief corps, the sewing circle, the home 
guards, the martial band, the girls working in the fields, the 
gray-haired men who gave all they had and talked only of their 
hero sons, the village post when the mail came in, the letters 
from the battle field — the eager, waiting people and the mes- 
sages quickly opened? and ah, how often the dim eyes, the 
tears, the broken heart — for some one dead in battle. 

Who will not recall the furloughed soldier, fresh from war — 
the hero of the hour? There's nothing in the town that is not 
his. Every voice greets him, every hand is in his own. 

What a hero the lowest private in the ranks has become when 
home on a f ulough ! His experiences are all detailed to eager 
listeners. What dangers he has seen! How he is loved for hav- 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1862. 185 

ing seen them! Each listening maid's a Desdemona, and he who 
talks a greater than Othello. The canteen he wears was taken 
from a Rebel at Iuka, and the pin on his breast is a piece of 
Shiloh church. That sabre, bent and scarred, talks aloud of the 
Hatchie Bridge, and the piece of a rebel flag was taken from a 
battery where every horse was dead, and every cannoneer shot 
down or wounded. And that bible — his mother gave it to him 
on the village green, with her blessing. There it is, indented and 
torn by the ball that, but for it, would have pierced his heart. 
Look at that furlough, signed by Gen. Grant himself, and dated 
before the battle — and the hero had fought with it in his pocket, 
because he would not leave his comrades in a crisis. No wonder he 
is a hero! No wonder that when his twenty days are up, the 
people go with him to the depot, and with cheers, kisses, good 
byes and blessings send him back again to war! 

And that other scene, who will not recall? — the plain pine 
coffin coming on the cars — the solitary guard; some soldier boy 
killed in battle — sent home to sleep in the little grave yard 
behind the village. The gray-haired home guards' steady line 
falls in. There are the muffled drum, the shrill fife, the droop- 
ing flag, the open grave — the broken hearts. The hero soldier 
sleeps — and this is war! 

When in the future the children of Iowa shall stand by these 
green graves, marked with the names of Iowa soldiers, let them 
reverently recall the sacrifices of that day — the patriotism, 
the broken hearts, the noble dead — and thank God that in such 
an hour, Iowa had such men ready. Let these sacrifices, these 
heart-breaks, these graves inspire them to stand by our 
common country in whatever peril may come. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BATTLE OF PRAIRIE GROVE. 
Dec. 7, 1862. 

There were few severer struggles in the war than the hotly 
contested field of Prairie Grove. It was fought, on the union 
side, against great odds. The battle was directed by an Iowa 
general, and two Iowa regiments, the Nineteenth and Twentieth, 
won lasting renown there by splendid heroism. With a com- 
mand numbering less than 5,000 men, Gen. Herron left 1,000 
dead Rebels on the field. The battle took place on the 7th day 
of December, 1862, and the Iowa regiments engaged had not 
been six months in the field. 

All of that autumn of 1862 the union troops of southwest 
Missouri, led by Generals Schofield, Blunt and Herron, had been 
chasing the Rebels up and down the wide mountainous stretch 
of country between Springfield, in Missouri, and the Boston 
mountains in Arkansas. There had been many and many a 
hard, forced march by day and by night, over execrable roads, 
the soldiers on short rations, and, at times, almost without shoes. 
The hardships of that autumn and early winter campaigning 
can hardly be over-estimated. The result was much sickness 
and many deaths, and yet the two Iowa regiments, participating 
in the worst of it all, had scarcely seen a battle. Their expos- 
ures and their hardships seemed almost in vain. 

During the last of November, Gen. Blunt defeated the Rebels 
at Cane Hill, and their army fell back southward. A time of 
rest and peace having apparently come, the union troops com- 
menced preparing to enjoy it. Gen. Schofield was called to 
another field of duty. Gen. Blunt succeeded to the command, 

. (186) 




GENERAL F. J. HERRON. 



BATTLE OF PEAIRIE GROVE. 187 

and with a division of troops camped near Cane Hill, the place 
of the recent victory. Gen. Herron, with two divisions, includ- 
ing the Nineteenth and the Twentieth Iowa among his other 
troops, marched all the way back to " Camp Curtis," twelve 
miles south of Springfield. This put the command of Blunt at 
the front and Herron at the rear, 125 miles apart. 

Herron's soldiers were barely settled down to the routine of 
camp life up there by Springfield, when the sudden and unex- 
pected news came that a large rebel army, variously estimated 
at from 20,000 to 30,000 men in numbers, had been organized 
beyond the Boston mountains and was rapidly marching against 
Gen. Blunt's single division in his camp at Cane Hill. Gen. 
Blunts appeal to Gen. Herron and his two divisions for imme- 
diate help was not in vain. Instantly Herron's command was on 
the rapid march. 

Cane Hill is eighteen miles southwest of the town of Fayette- 
ville and ten miles northwest of Van Buren, the point where 
the rebel army, Gen. Hindman in command, was crossing the 
Arkansas river. Hindman's forces had approached Gen. Blunt's 
position, and, by skirmishing with his advance a couple of days, 
misled that general into supposing that he was about to give 
him battle. The astute Rebel knew, however, that Herron was 
a hard marcher and would soon join his column to that of Gen. 
Blunt. He determined to flank Blunt's little army, move past 
its left, rush on to Herron, overwhelm and defeat him, and then 
turn and serve Blunt in a similar way. It was a neat little military 
plan, but it was not a new one, and, besides, the rebel general 
was, as often happened in those Arkansas days, reckoning with- 
out his host. That host was Gen. Herron, of Iowa, formerly a 
young captain of militia in the city of Dubuque. 

Herron's soldiers did some incredible marching, in hopes of 
reaching Cane Hill in time to save Blunt's army. Soldiers, guns 
and trains pushed along day and night twenty to thirty miles a 
day. They entered Fayetteville before daylight of the morning 
of December 7th, 1862. Herron had, from a point farther back, 
sent some cavalry across the country to Blunt's aid. Very great 
was his surprise that morning, a few miles out of Fayetteville, 



188 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

to meet some of this same cavalry coming back on the run, 
panic-stricken and dismayed. 

These valiant horsemen had run into the advance guard of 
Hindman's rebel army, and had apparently got the worst of it. 
Gen. Herron at once brought his men in order, got his regiments 
well in hand, and for a few miles drove back the rebel cavalry. 
At last, approaching a little stream known as the Illinois river, 
he discovered the infantry and the artillery of Hindman's army. 
They were drawn up in battle array along a heavily wooded 
ridge beyond the opposite bank of the stream. The position 
was a strong one, and Gen. Herron's little army was out-num- 
bered as four to one.* He was not long, however, in deciding 
what to do. In fact there was but one choice: either to retreat 
and lose his trains, leaving Blunt's division ten miles away to be 
destroyed, or take the chances of a battle with the odds all 
against him. His command numbered less than 5,000 men. 
The enemy on the hills beyond the stream had possibly 25,000. 

Gen. Herron at once pushed a regiment of infantry and 
a battery across the stream, to feel the enemy's position. These 
were immediately driven back. His next move was to cut a way 
through the timber to the river at a point half a mile off, and 
there, under an artillery fire, make a feint of crossing. The ruse 
succeeded. The enemy's attention being attracted to this new 
point, Herron seized the opportunity aud dashed over the river 
at the ford with both his divisions. Protected by his massed 
artillery, he placed his command in line of battle and was charg- 
ing the rebel lines almost before they were sure of his being 
over the river. 

This movement had been extremely audacious — perhaps unwise 

*Gen. Herron, in a private letter, said: " For four miles we fought their 
cavalry, driving them back to Illinois creek, where I found their whole force 
strongly posted on a long ridge, with magnificent positions for batteries. 
For one mile in front it was clear ground, and my road lay right in the 
center of their line. From a prisoner taken, 1 learned that Hinduian was 
on the ridge, with his whole force, and intended to whip me out before 
Blunt could get up — in other words, to take us one at a time. The case 
looked tough, with Blunt ten miles away, and 25,000 men between us; but 
I saw at a glance there were just two things that could be done; namely, 
fight them without delay, and depend on the chance of Blunt's hearing me 
and coming up, or retreat and lose my whole train. It required no time to 
make a decision." 



BATTLE OF PR A TRIE GROVE. 189 

and unsafe. He had put his army in a critical position with a 
stream and a single crossing behind him, and a powerful, well 
posted enemy, greatly exceeding him in numbers, at his front. 
The least mishap, and his army would be captured or destroyed. 
However, once over, he was there to fight. It is said that he 
purposed relying for safety and success on his good artillery. 
However that may be, certain it is his excellently manned batteries 
served him well. They kept up an extraordinary and galling 
cannonade on the enemy's position. To silence these massed 
guns and to avoid their fire, the Rebels made a charge against 
his division on the left. He instantly sent Orme's brigade to 
meet this attack, and at the same time charged heavily on the 
rebel center. His batteries moved forward over the open slope, 
supported by the Nineteenth Iowa and the Twentieth Wisconsin, 
pouring a flood of shell and canister into the rebel lines. They 
were met by a fire from opposing batteries and a heavy mus- 
ketry fire of infantry. 

Suddenly, the advancing union batteries halted and the 
Nineteenth Iowa, led by Lt.-Col. McFarland, and the Twenti- 
eth Wisconsin, rushed forward in one of the very fiercest charges 
of the war. The line was to take a battery that from its posi- 
tion just back of an orchard and farther up the hill was pouring 
destruction into the union ranks. On and forward the two 
regiments went under a terrible fire, took the battery, and 
plunged, with fixed bayonets, into Fagan's rebel brigade, that 
.vas supporting it. Suddenly from their concealed position, and 
three ranks deep, the Rebels rise, and from three different direc- 
tians pour an increased and awful fire into the gallant regiment. 
It wavered and fell back down the slope, its course covered with 
its dead aud wounded. 

It had been a gallant, though a fatal charge. Its leader, the 
brave McFarland, was shot dead, as were other good officers and 
not less than forty of its men. Five of its daring officers and 
140 of the little line, only 500 strong, were wounded. Two were 
missing— probably dead — making a total loss in the regiment of 
one hundred and ninety-two. Beside the lieutenant colonel, 
Lieutenants Smith and Johnson were killed. Captains Jordan, 



190 IOWA IJS" WAK TIMES. 

Wright and Paine, and Lieutenants Brooks and Harrison Smith 
were wounded. Capt. Richmond was captured. 

Yet the regiment's fighting was not over. Col. Orme, com- 
mander of brigade, rode up shortly after the charge, and rallying 
the shattered remnants of the regiment, led it and the Ninety- 
fourth Illinois once more against the enemy. Once more the 
Nineteenth Iowa did some gallant fighting, until ordered to 
fall back and re-form. 

After the death of the noble McFarland, a man loved not 
only by his soldiers, but by all Iowa, Maj. D. Kent took 
command. In the report on the battle, Maj. Kent mentions for 
gallantry the names of Captains Roderick, Richmond, Bruce and 
Taylor, and Lieut. Brooks. Lieut. Brooks was badly wounded 
in saving the colors, and Lieut. Root and Capt. Bruce led on one 
of the hottest skirmish lines of the war. 

The Twentieth Iowa also had its full share of battling against 
odds, that at different periods in the battle seemed overpower- 
ing. For hours the conflict raged with charges and counter- 
charges, and the union artillery in the battle of Prairie Grove 
accomplished as much as the infantry. Possibly in no conflict 
had cannon been so skillfully manned, so constantly used, or 
with such results. At times, as the brave lines advanced or were 
driven back, it seemed as if the odds were too great. The posi- 
tion at last became extremely critical and in the pauses of the 
battle, the officers vainly listened for the sound of Blunt's 
cannon. At two o'clock the rebel left wing prepared for a 
charge on Herron's right and an attempt to flank him. Scarcely 
were their lines advancing, when to their astonishment they 
ran into fresh troops and well posted batteries. Blunt had 
arrived. The almost disheartened soldiers of Herron's division 
took cheer and the battle was renewed. 

By a forced march Blunt's division had hurried from Cane 
Hill to the sound of Herron's artillery, and now were in position 
in front of the strongly posted rebel left. They hurriedly con- 
nected with Herron's extreme right, held by the Twentieth Iowa, 
and sixteen of Blunt's cannon poured shell, ball and canister 
into the rebel line at short range, shortly driving two rebel bat- 



BATTLE OF PRAIRIE GROVE. 191 

teries and the infantry supports into the edge of the woods. 
"Charge them," was the order to the union infantry, and the 
brigade, which included the Twentieth Iowa, under Lt.-Col. 
Leake, moved to the assault. It was led by Col. Dye of the 
Twentieth. Under a severe fire, they rapidly crossed up the 
slope through an open field and as rapidly drove the rebel line 
through the orchard beyond, and into the woods. Once a body 
of the enemy, wearing blue overcoats, deceived a part of the line 
who supposed they were firing on their friends. A sudden 
volley from the same force, however, soon undeceived them and 
created a little confusion in the left of the union line. Some of 
the supports having fallen back, the Twentieth Iowa was also 
directed to retire to the lower fence of the orchard and to hold 
the position. This was done under a galling fire, the men lying 
down behind the fence and pouring a flame of musketry 
between the rails. Again the concentrated fire of the union 
artillery did its fatal work, and when night came the rebel 
army wrapped its wagon and artillery wheels with blankets and 
retired from the battle field.* Prairie Grove was won — and 
Iowa courage and Iowa blood had helped to win it. 

In the charge by the Twentieth Iowa, Lt.-Col. Leake, one of 
the bravest men on the field, had led the regiment. Forty-seven 
men of the Twentieth were lost in the action. Lieut. Harrison 
Oliver was killed. Leiutenants R. M. Lytle, J. G. G. Cavendish, 
F. E. Starck and E. Stone, were wounded. So, too, was Maj. 
Thompson, who had acted on the field with exceptional valor. 
Sergt. Maj. G. A. Gray and Acting Adjt. J. C. McClelland were 
complimented for gallantry. Col. Mc. E. Dye, who had led the 
brigade in the memorable action, was always competent and 
courageous, — in short, all the Iowa men in that battle, from 
Gen. Herron down to the humblest private, did the state of 
Iowa honor. 

*One of Gen. Hir.dman's orders to his troops reads as follows: 
" Do not break ranks to plunder. If we whip the enemy, all will be ours ; 
if not. the spoils will be of no benefit to us. Plunderers and stragglers will 
be put to death on the spot. Remember that the enemy has no feelings of 
mercy or kindness towards you; his ranks are made up of Pin Indians, free 
negroes, northern traitors, Kansas jayhawhers, Dutch cut-throats and 
bloody ruffians, who have invaded your country, stolen and destroyed your 
property, murdered your neighbors, outraged your women, driven your 
children from their homes and defiled the graves of your kindred. " 



192 IOWA IN WAR TIME8. 

The federal loss at Prairie Grove was 1148. The rebel losses, 
though never definitely known, were probably not less than 
3,000. 

Whatever the odds against Herron and Blunt may have been, 
there was no question as to where the victory belonged. Iowa 
was very proud of her two regiments in that battle, and in his 
words of praise the governor echoed the feelings of the whole 
state.* 

PARKER'S CROSS ROADS. 

The year 1862 closed in the West with a little battle in which 
an Iowa regiment took a conspicuous and heroic part. The Thir- 
ty-ninth Iowa was on its way to join Gen. G. M. Dodge at Corinth, 
and had only reached the town of Jackson, when the post com- 
mander there in great alarm ordered the regiment to dismount 
from the railway train and help defend the city against For- 
rest's cavalry. 

Forrest was not near Jackson, as it transpired, and so after 
some days' delay, and frequent false alarms, the Thirty-ninth 
Iowa, the Fiftieth Indiana and the One-hundred-and-twenty- 

*Execdtive Office, Iowa, ) 
Iowa City, January 5th, 1863. ) 
Colonel: In the hard fought battle at Prairie Grove, the Nineteenth regi- 
ment Iowa Volunteer infantry did nobly. It fully sustained and added to 
the honored and well earned fame of the soldiers of Iowa. 

I mourn with you for the brave men who died there, and sympathize with 
you for those suffering from wounds received there, to sustain the flag and 
the cause of the Union ! 

Please convey to the gallant men of your command my thanks and the 
thanks of the people of Iowa for their good conduct and their devotion to 
the cause of our country. 

Very respectfully your ob't serv't, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 
Col. B. Crabb, 19th Reg't. Iowa Vol. Inf., Springfield, Mo. 

Executive Office, Iowa. ? 
Iowa City, January 5th, 1863. J 
Colonel: — I have learned with pride and pleasure the good conduct of the 
Twentieth Regiment Iowa Volunteer infantry in the hard fought battle of 
Prairie Grove. 

They have nobly sustained the good name of the Iowa troops and have 
given earnest that the record of the Twentieth shall be as proud a one as that 
of any other Iowa regiment. 

Please convey to them my thanks and the thanks of the people of Iowa for 
their gallantry and good conduct. 

Very respectfully your ob't serv't, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 
Col. Wm. M. E. Dye, Twentieth Reg't Iowa Vol. Inf. 



BATTLE OF PRALRIE GROVE. 193 

second Illinois, all under Col. Dunham, were marched off in the 
direction of Red Mound, to hunt Forrest up. 

They found him with 5,000 men, well posted in timber, not far 
from a place known as Parker's Cross Roads. This was just at 
the time that Van Dorn was riding around the rear of Grant's 
army and destroying his depot of supplies at Holly Springs. 
Gen. Forrest had proposed destroying some railroads and towns 
in another direction, but his plans must have been materially 
interfered with by what occurred to him at Parker's Cross Roads. 
Had Van Dorn met such a foe as Col. Redfield and the Thir- 
ty-ninth Iowa at Holly Springs, instead of Col. Murphy, that 
town would not have been taken. Grant's army would have 
marched straight on to Vicksburg in 1862, and thousands of 
human lives would have been saved. 

Col. Redfield was shot and badly wounded, leading his regi- 
ment at Parker's Cross Roads, but from the hospital, later, he 
was able to tell Gov. Kirkwood some interesting details of the 
battle. 

" December 31st, at 4 o'clock, we resumed our march toward 
Lexington," says Gol. Redfield. "At 8 o'clock we came within 
a mile of Parker's Cross Roads. Our advance had a sharp skir- 
mish with a body of the Rebels and drove them off. Our regi- 
ment was ordered to take position in the road on the east of the 
field, where the skirmishing took place. Col. Dunham advanced 
to the Cross Roads, and drove a body of the enemy back on the 
road leading west. Our artillery, two guns of the Wisconsin 
battery, were planted on a knoll near the corner, and felt of the 
woods toward the west with shells. This scattered all the Rebels 
in sight. Our artillery was then moved west about half a mile, 
on a ridge near the edge of the woods, and the whole brigade 
moved up to support it. The first fire from the rebel battery, 
stationed about half a mile north, killed five horses and one man 
belonging to one of our guns. 

" Our commander concluded to change his position and marched 
us back east to the Cross Roads, and thence south on the Lex- 
ington road, a little over a mile. Our regiment took the extreme 
left and was stationed on the east side of the road on a high 
I. W. T.— 13 



194: IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

piece of ground and in front of a house occupied by a Mrs. 
Small. 

" Soon the rebel cavalry made its appearance, emerging from the 
woods. On they came in a string that seemed to have no end. 
Our artillery played upon them and produced some scattering in 
their ranks, but without impeding their progress. 

" A portion of them came up the road, but were kept in check, 
and finally driven back by two companies stationed behind a rail 
barricade. The main body moved to the left and took possession 
of a piece of woods, which it seems to me we ought to have 
occupied before then. But I will not criticise. I will simply 
relate facts. 

" They formed line on the south side of these woods, adjoining 
a field, and planted their cannon in several places along the line. 
We were ordered up on the double quick and formed line on the 
south side of the above mentioned field behind a rail fence, and 
also in the edge of a piece of woods. Their cannon played on 
us at a fearful rate, and it seemed for a while we would be cut 
to pieces. But our men fired with such precision with their 
Enfields, that it soon became quite difficult for them to manage 
their artillery. The distance across the field was from 600 to 
700 yards. Their infantry (dismounted cavalry of course) was 
stationed along their regular line and also in the field behind a 
knoll a little to our left. Other bodies or detachments were sent 
to our right and a large force came up on our rear almost sur- 
rounding us, and exposing us to a galling fire from the front 
flanks and rear. I shall not attempt a description of the scream- 
ing of shells and the deafening roar of artillery and the furious 
discharges of the small arms. I can only say it was a hot place; 
only 1,500 men with 2 pieces of artillery, not very well handled, 
fighting at least 7,000 with 12 pieces of artillery. But our men 
fought bravely and stood up like veterans, with perhaps a few 
exceptions. 

" While rallying our men to resist the attack on our rear, I 
was wounded, and fell, but got up after a little and did what I 
could, until the loss of blood rendered me too weak for further 
effort. 



BA.TTLE OF PRAIEIE GROVE. 195 

" The tide of battle seemed to be turning strongly against us, 
and then Gen. Sullivan came up with the brigade of Col. Fuller, 
and, after a very short engagement the Rebels broke and the 
victory was ours. We took 6 pieces of artillery and something 
over 400 prisoners, 500 horses, many wagons, etc. 

" The real, solid, fierce battle raged for about two to three 
hours. Our regiment lost 3 killed and 37 wounded." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG— ARKANSAS POST. 
Winter of 1862-3. 



COMBINED MOVEMENTS OF GRANT AND SHERMAN— CHICKA- 
SAW BAYOU. 

Vicksburg was the Richmond of the Southwest. Its natural 
position and its splendid fortifications made it the key to the 
Mississippi river. Its importance was appreciated in the South 
as well as in the North. It was, in the words of Horace Greeley, 
the natural center and chief citadel of the slaveholders' confed- 
eracy. 

On the 2d of November, 1862, Gen. Grant, at Jackson, Ten- 
nessee, commenced a grand movement against Vicksburg, by 
land, marching with a well organized army by way of Holly 
Springs. Shortly afterward, December 8th, he ordered Gen. 
Sherman to co-operate with him by starting a force of 30,000 
men down the Mississippi river in steamers; these to be sup- 
ported by the entire federal flotilla of gunboats on the river. 
It was intended by the government that Gen. McClernand 
should command this river expedition. To add to his river 
force, Gen. McClernand was himself in Iowa and Illinois, seek- 
ing, with the aid of the governors, to raise additional troops for 
this purpose. Grant, however, had prejudices against McCler- 
nand, and without waiting for his coming, hurried to place Sher- 
man in command. 

There were many Iowa troops with the river expedition and 
there were quite a number of regiments marching with Grant, 

(196) 



ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG. 197 

by land. Grant pushed his own army down the great southern 
railroad from Grand Junction through Holly Springs and to 
Oxford, repairing the road as he went. Holly Springs he made 
his base of supplies, and he accumulated there vast stores for 
his commissary and quartermaster departments. His advance 
cavalry, 2,000 strong, pushed on to Coffeeville, and was there 
met and defeated by a large force of rebel infantry. 

Just before Christmas Grant's advancing columns were 
brought to a sudden halt. Gen. Van Dorn, with a large force 
of rebel cavalry, rode around the flanks of Grant's army to his 
rear, crossed the railroad at Holly Springs, captured the town 
with its garrison, and destroyed its vast stores of supplies. This 
single blow ruined the whole campaign, and Grant's army was 
compelled to make a forced march on half rations clear back to 
the Mississippi river. The expedition had proved hard and use- 
less and six months' time was lost. The Iowa regiments 
patiently took part through the long marches in mud and rain. 

On the very day after the capture of Holly Springs, Sherman, 
not knowing of the disaster to the co-operating army, boarded 
his steamers and started for Vicksburg. Grant's failure by land 
had released the rebel army in his front, and it was hurried on 
to join the confederate forces waiting to receive Sherman at 
Vicksburg. Now followed jthe short but disastrous campaign 
of Chickasaw Bayou. By the 27th of the month the federal 
army, consisting wholly of western troops, was landed on the 
south side of the Yazoo river. In his front, and to contend 
with, Sherman had not only the w^ll-manned batteries and 
forts of Vicksburg, but deep lagoons, bayous and swamps — all 
protected by rifle pits, trenches and batteries. Chickasaw Bayou, 
encircling and protecting the rebel front, was passable but at 
two places, and these two thoroughly defended by rifle pits and 
bluffs. Vicksburg, from the direction in which it was now 
being attacked, was simply impregnable. It was, as the Rebels 
had boasted, the Gibraltar of the West. 

Spite of it all, Sherman, still trusting that Grant's army was 
coming up in the rebel rear, hurled his devoted divisions on the 
enemy. Greater heroism or severer fighting are seldom seen in 



198 IOWA IN WAE TIMES. 

war, than followed in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou. In mid- 
winter, men waded through water waist deep, to storm rifle pits 
and trenches that scarcely could have been entered had no enemy 
been there to protect them. At noon of Dec. 29th Chickasaw 
Bayou was crossed at two points, a mile apart, under a terrific 
fire from rifle pits and earthworks. It was an heroic undertak- 
ing, but the positions gained by our storming battalions could not 
be held, and in the night the federal forces were withdrawn to 
the transports. 

It w^s surely time. Another enemy had that day re-enforced 
the Rebels at Chickasaw Bayou. It was the heavy rains that in 
twenty-four hours could have made fifteen feet of flood on the 
very ground where the union troops stood firing. The army 
would in all probability have been compelled to surrender or 
drown. It escaped without either. 

All of the Iowa troops at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, 
were attached to the division of Brig. Gen. F. Steele. Gen. 
Thayer of Nebraska commanded the brigade (the Third) that did 
the hardest fighting among them. His command consisted of 
the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth and Thirty-fourth 
Iowa regiments and the First Iowa battery of light artillery. 
Gen. Hovey commanded the brigade that included the Twenty- 
fifth and the Thirty-first regiments. This brigade did not take 
part in the assault. Gen. Thayer's regiment, however, crossed 
the big bayou, and joined the other troops in the storming of 
the works. They fought gallantly and received the thanks of 
their superior officers. Especially conspicuous was the Fourth 
Iowa, under Col. Williamson. No other regiment on the field 
occupied so perilous a position on that day. The brigade led by 
Thayer, the Fourth Iowa ahead, crossed the bayou over a nar- 
row crossway, exposed to a concentrated fire of musketry and 
cannon, and stormed into the enemy's works. By some blun- 
der during this charge, or right at its beginning, three regiments 
of the brigade had been ordered to move to the right.* Thayer, 
leading the charge, looked back and saw his regiments all gone 
but the Fourth Iowa, which was in the works unsupported and 

*The Twenty-sixth had previously been detached. 



ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG. 



199 




SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 



200 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

alone. Other troops, that had stormed into the left of the 
Fourth, were overwhelmed and falling back, and the concen- 
trated fire of the enemy was now directed on this devoted regi- 
ment. In thirty minutes the little command of 480 men lost 
7 men killed, and 104 wounded.* 

Among the killed was Lieut. E. C. Miller. " No braver offi- 
cer," said Col. Williamson, " has fallen in his country's cause." 
Lieut. Leander Pitzer was mortally wounded, and Capt. R. A. 
Still severely, as was the gallant Col. Williamson himself. 

Later, Gen. Grant, in appreciation of the gallant conduct of 
the Fourth Iowa in this assault, ordered that the regiment place 
on its colors the words "First at Chickasaw Bayou." All the 
other Iowa regiments and the Iowa battery at Chickasaw, did 
their duty, but to none as to the Fourth fell the opportunity of 
writing its name in the blood of so many of its gallant men. 
The war department record shows the Iowa losses at Chicka- 
saw Bayou to have been in killed and wounded as follows: The 
Fourth Iowa, 112; the Ninth, 8; the Twenty-fifth, 10; the 
Thirtieth, 4; and the Thirty-first, 2. 

Gen. Sherman promptly withdrew his army to the transports. 
If the assaults had been a failure, neither he nor the brave men 
he led to battle were to blame. He had obeyed his orders. The 
fault lay in the cowardly surrender of Holly Springs, behind 
Grant's co-operating army. Some day it will be asked, how did 
Grant, the astute general, happen to leave his base of supplies, 
of immense value and untold importance, in the hands of only 
1,000 volunteer recruits, commanded by an officer of no experi- 
ence — a man who had failed in duty once before, and who was, 
as it turned out, a coward? 

Gen. McClernand, who was to have commanded the river expe- 
dition originally, now appeared at Sherman's headquarters and 
took supreme command. It was a strange sight — a great mili- 
tary genius being relieved of his command by Gen. S. A. 
McClernand! 

♦Rebellion Records. 



ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG. 201 

CAPTURE OF ARKANSAS POST. 
The river army now, at Gen. Sherman's suggestion, was car- 
ried by steamers up the White and Arkansas rivers, to attack 
Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, fifty miles from the mouth of 
the river. All the Iowa regiments then near Vicksburg went 
along. 

Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, was a strong, star-shaped 
fort on the left bank of the Arkansas river, forty miles above 
its mouth. It was solidly built, well armed, and situated in a 
position naturally strong. Its commander, on the approach of 
the Federals, received from headquarters the order to " hold out 
till the last man was dead." The defense made by its 5,000 gar- 
rison was a gallant one. 

On the evening of the 9th of January the federal army 
landed from the transports and proceeded to surround the forti- 
fications from the land side. The flotilla of gunboats under 
Admiral Porter took position on the river and cannonaded the 
fort most furiously until dark. The investment was not com- 
plete before 10 A. m. of the 11th. Gen. Steele's division, con- 
taining the Iowa troops, took position on the extreme right of 
the army. At one o'clock the grand assault was to commence. 
The gunboats opened a terrific fire, soon followed by the fire of 
artillery of the entire right and left wings of the investing 
army. At half past one, Hovey's and Thayer's brigades, the 
latter all Iowa men, and the brigades of Giles A. and T. K, 
Smith charged over the open ground to their front. They were 
supported by Blair's brigade as a reserve, and all advanced under 
a fire of musketry and artillery. In the advance which was at 
first made in column of regiments, Gen. Hovey and many 
officers and men were wounded. In the battle line, as it now 
deployed, the Twenty-sixth Iowa, under Col. Milo Smith, occu- 
pied the left, suffered much and did very great execution. " No 
officer or regiment behaved better, or did better fighting on that 
battle field, than Col. Milo Smith and his regiment," wrote the 
brigade commander to Gov. Kirkwood. " They advanced to the 
front under a most galling fire," he continues, " and in the most 



202 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

exposed part of the field, and held it till the action was over. 
Col. Smith remained at his post till carried wounded from the 
field." 

Lieutenants P. S. Hyde and J. S. Patterson, with 17 men of 
the regiment, were killed, and 98 officers and men were wounded. 
Among them were Lieut. James McDill, mortally; Adjt. Thos. 
G. Ferreby, Capt. N. A. Merrell and Lieutenants Edward Svens- 
den and W. R. Ward.* 

The Thirtieth Iowa, led by Lt.-Col. Torrence, Col. Abbot being 
ill, was also well advanced and warmly engaged. It was gal- 
lantly supported by the Thirty-fourth Iowa under Col. Clark, 
while the Fourth and Ninth Iowa, though under fire, were held 
in reserve. 

In Hovey's brigade on the extreme right, the Twenty-fifth 
Iowa, under Col. Stone, and the Thirty-first Iowa, under Col. 
Smyth, marched with the Missouri and Ohio regiments to the 
assault. The Twenty-fifth Iowa gallantly supported the Sev- 
enty-sixth Ohio, and the Thirty-first Iowa the Third Missouri. 
"This column, 1 ' says Gen. Hovey, "moving over open ground, 
and in advance of all others, drew the concentrated fire of the 
enemy's artillery and rifle pits." At Hovey's right flank, a 
charge was ordered by the Third Missouri, supported by the 
Thirty-first Iowa, under a galling cross-fire of infantry and 
artillery. The charge was gallantly made, but failed. 

At other points along the line, especially in front of the divis- 
ion of A. J. Smith, the union troops were meeting with better 
success. Smith had advanced with twelve regiments, and stead- 
ily drove the enemy into his intrenchments. Led by Smith 
personally, the regiments advanced almost close enough to shake 
hands with the enemy across the rifle pits. Burbridge's, Land- 
rum's and Sheldon's brigades dashed forward under a deadly 
fire almost into the enemy's works. All along the line the union 
troops were successfully assaulting. 

At 4:30 o'clock, and after three hours of hard fighting, the 
white flag was run up on the fort, and the loyal troops of the 
Northwest marched into Arkansas Post. Five thousand pris- 

*Rebellion Records. 



ATTEMPTS ON" VICKSBURG. 203 

oners and large stores of arms and supplies were captured, and 
200 Rebels had been killed or wounded. The federal loss was 
1,061 officers and men killed, wounded and missing.* Sixty-five 
officers were wounded, and 6 killed. 

The Thirtieth Iowa fought hard and lost severely. It lay in 
one position for three hours, successfully silencing some field- 
artillery, supported by musketry from rifle pits. James M. 
Smith, a private of the Thirtieth, was complimented for gallan- 
try by his commander. The loss of the regiment was 43 killed 
and wounded — among the latter, Captains Creamer and Burk, 
and Lieutenants Creighton and Alexander. 

Col. Stone, of the Twenty-fifth, was complimented by Gen. 
Hovey, as was his regiment, with the exception of its major, who 
was accused of " leaving the field in the face of the enemy." 
The loss of the Twenty-fifth regiment was 61 killed and 
wounded, showing the severity of the fighting. Adjt. Samuel 
Kirkwood Clarke, one of the most esteemed young officers, was 
mortally wounded. Less wounded were Captains Palmer and 
Bell, and Lieutenants Stark and Orr. 

Capt. Dan. H. Lyons, of the Thirty-fourth Iowa, was mor- 
tally wounded, and 15 others were slightly wounded. 

THE YAZOO PASS EXPEDITION. 

The capture of Arkansas Post had been but an interlude in 
the various vain efforts to reduce Vicksburg. These efforts had 
been by gunboats, by " cut offs," by bayous, canals, and assaults. 
Many weary months had passed with armies marching hither 
and thither, trying this thing and that, and yet Vicksburg was 
not ours. 

Most unique and most picturesque of all the vain attempts to 
capture the coveted city, and with it the key to the mighty 
Father of Waters, was the expedition to the " Yazoo Pass." 
Gen. Grant cut the great levee of the Mississippi at a point near 
Helena.f The river was very high, and shortly the low lands, 

*Rebellion Records. 

fMuch of the severe labor of' clearing Yazoo Pass was performed by the 
Thirty-third Iowa Infantry, and the privations and fatigue of the labor will 
never be forgotten by the men of that regiment. 



204 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

the little streams, the plantations and the woods, for a hundred 
miles, were flooded so deep as to look like a vast inland sea. 
Here and there, high ground and houses and tree tops stood 
above the water, as reminders that here in times of peace, had 
been the homes and habitations of men. 

Grant's plan now was to reach the rear of Vicksburg, trans- 
porting a small army escorted by gun boats through the Yazoo 
Pass, via Moon Lake, and thence down the Coldwater and Talla- 
hatchie rivers toward Yazoo City and Haines Bluff, north of 
Vicksburg. 

February 24, under Gen. Ross, seven gunboats and eighteen 
transports, bearing soldiers, many of them from Iowa, entered 
the sea of swamp and flood and forest. The descent into Moon 
Lake was rapid and dangerous, and the boats, loaded to the 
water's edge with the cheering soldiers, dashed on and were 
whirled about like toys. Slowly the little fleet now picked its way 
down the deepest streams, along bayous and swamps, across 
fields, wherever the obstructions of the forest trees might prove 
the least. 

It was a strange spectacle — this fleet of steamers and gun- 
boats and cheering soldiers among the forests, swamps and 
plantations of the Coldwater. At night, the boats were tied to 
the trees, and the men left their cracker boxes, with novel 
inscriptions and bits of canteens and broken swords, far up in 
the tree tops. The darkeys, left on the plantations here and 
there above water, thought the Year of Jubilee had come. 
Some, seeing the rising waters, looked for another flood, and 
regarded the gunboats as possible arks of safety. 

At the junction of the Tallahatchie and the Yallabusha rivers 
the expedition came to a sudden halt. The Rebels had built a 
fort and obstructed the stream with rafts so completely as to 
make further advance impossible. The gunboats tried it and 
were badly crippled. So too did some batteries. The rebel posi- 
tion was too strong, and there was nothing for Ross to do but 
to return, if he could. On his way back from the remarkable 
voyage, he met Gen. Quinby's division, including more Iowa 
troops, crossing to aid him. 



ATTEMPTS ON VICKSBURG. 205 

Quinby assumed command, and the expedition was sent for- 
ward again to the rebel front. It was of no avail, and shortly 
the whole command slowly steamed back through the woods to 
the Mississippi, its commanders thankful that the whole force 
had been neither captured nor drowned. 

The men of the Iowa regiments, and they included the Fifth, 
Tenth, Seventeenth and Thirty-third, will never forget the days 
when they were all mariners in the Yazoo Pass, nor the adven- 
tures of a campaign the most novel of the war. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 
May-July, 1863. 

At last, Vicksburg's hour was coming. The great Missis- 
sippi river was subsiding, and the endless and tortuous bayous, 
creeks and lagoons through which Grant's army had been 
wading and swimming in mid-winter — they, too, were subsiding, 
and dry land was to be found about Vicksburg. The army 
infantry were to be mariners no longer. The crocodiles and 
the alligators of the swamps and the lagoons were to have a 
rest. 

Gen. Grant's army was to be marched down the west side of 
the Mississippi to a point below Vicksburg, and there, under 
the protection of the gunboats, cross over and attack the rebel 
stronghold from the rear. Gunboats and transports, manned 
mostly by volunteers from the army, some of them from Iowa, 
ran past the fierce line of batteries in the night. That was one 
of the great scenes of the war. " It was a magnificent sight," 
said Gen. Grant, " but terrible. 1 ' 

At ten o'clock at night on the 16th of April, eight gunboats 
and three transports, their boilers and decks protected by bales of 
cotton and thousands of sacks of grain, started on the perilous 
undertaking. Each vessel dragged at its side barges laden with 
bales of hay and army supplies, all to be used when the fleet 
and the army should meet below. In the dark holds of each 
vessel stood volunteers, ready to stop with cotton and boards 
any holes made in the sides by the cannon balls of the enemy. 
Gen. Grant, from a tug in the river, watched the brave men 
start. At a point farther down, right opposite the batteries and 
among the swamps, Gen. Sherman, with a yawl and a few sol- 

(206) 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 



207 



diers, awaited their coming, determined to aid tlie wrecked, if 
the boats should sink. The upper levees toward Milliken's Bend 
were thronged with soldiers eagerly listening for the shots that 
would tell that the danger was on. 

Prompt at the signal from the shore, the fleet started into the 
darkness, the flag ship Benton ahead, and the brave Porter com- 
manding. Sullenly and slowly, with lights hidden, and as 
quietly as possible, the boats drifted down the mighty river. 
Sullenly they slipped along the river's bend, till suddenly the 
watchful pickets of the foe sent up a burning rocket, and that 
moment came the boom of mighty cannon. All the shore sud- 
denly blazed with torches and burning houses.* Gun after gun, 
battery after battery, let loose a thunder of explosions and 
bursting missiles. Every boat in the floating line was hit, and 
the iron sides of the gunboats rattled and shivered with the 
awful hail that struck them. The roaring cannon, and the 
shells bursting like balls of fire in the air, one of the boats on 
fire and sinking, and the Rebels running and yelling on the 
half lighted shore, made a terrific spectacle. 

All this time the soldiers, in the dark holds of the boats, stood 
waiting with the cotton in their hands. It took two hours for the 
boats to pass the awful storm of all the batteries. What hours 
for the men down in the holds! One boat only was lost. The 
fleet was below Vicksburg and the army could cross the river. 

A similar feat with the batteries at Grand Gulf, and daylight 
of April 30th saw 10,000 union soldiers landed on the east side 
of the river, ready for battle. Other thousands were hurrying 
across, and all now in full view of the amazed defenders of the 
forts at Grand Gulf. Only yesterday, these same forts, after an 
awful bombardment, had driven back the federal gunboats and 
prevented a landing above the position. That night while they 
were loading their guns and preparing for the morrow, the 

Yankee 1 ' boats passed their batteries and were now ferrying 
their thousands across the river.f 

*The Rebels made bonfires and fired the buildings along the levee, to 
light up the river and enable their artillery to attack the gunboats. 

t" When the troops got over the river," says Genv Grant, " I felt a degree 
oi relief scarcely ever equaled since." * * * " I was on dry ground, on 
the same side of the river with the enemy." 



£08 IOWA IK WAR TIMES. 

Among those thousands now marching on Vicksburg from the 
rear, were twenty-nine regiments and batteries from Iowa. It 
was to be another great Iowa victory. Again Iowa troops were 
to hold key positions, and Iowa blood was to again seal her peo- 
ple's devotion to the Union. The honor to be achieved by these 
Iowa regiments, crossing over the river on the gunboats that 
bright morning, was not the same to all. Some were placed in 
unimportant or subordinate positions — some in reserve — some 
were hurled into the hottest vortex of the battle; but, in its 
place, each and every Iowa regiment at Vicksburg did its duty. 
Two hundred miles were to be marched by day aud by night, on 
short rations, and five battles were to be fought in almost the 
same number of days. 

A letter received by Grant from Gen. Banks led him to 
change the plan of his campaign the moment he was over the 
river. Banks was to have co-operated with Grant from Port 
Hudson; New Orleans, instead of Milliken's Bend, was to have 
been the base of supply. Banks could not act with the required 
celerity, and Grant, regardless of war department wishes, 
abandoned the plan, cut loose and entered the enemy's country 
determined by quick marches and fierce battles to whip the 
rebel armies in detail and as suddenly march on the fortifications of 
Vicksburg. The plan was in design, as in execution, Napo- 
leonic. 

PORT GIBSON. 

The point where the army was mostly ferried over the river 
was known as Bruinsburg. McClernand's corps, containing 
several Iowa regiments, marched in advance with the Second 
brigade of Carr's division, commanded by Col. Wm. Stone, 
ahead. Stone had with him in this brigade, the Twenty-first, 
Twenty-second and Twenty-third Iowa infantry, and the First 
Iowa battery. The course was east, and that midnight the head 
of the column struck the enemy eight miles from Port Gibson.* 

The Rebels, 8,500 strong, lay along two roads running a mile 

*It was a strange comment on the changing events of those battle days, 
that the guide who was leading the advance of the army that night through 
the woods and darkness, was an old negro— a slave of the neighborhood. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 209 

apart, and on high ridges, back to Port Gibson. Osterhaus's 
division was advanced on the north road, and Carr's, Hovey's 
and Ross's divisions, including several Iowa regiments, were 
pushed against the enemy on the southern road. There was a 
deep, impassable ravine between the two roads, completely separ- 
ating the two wings of the union army and preventing co-opera- 
tion. 

At midnight, four companies of the Twenty-first Iowa, under 
Lt.-Col. Dunlap and Maj. Van Anda, and a part of the First 
Iowa battery, under Capt. Griffiths, led as skirmishers. Being 
fired on in the darkness, the rest of the Twenty-first, led by Col. 
Merrill, was brought up. As the line reached a little church at 
the roadside, they were met by a tremendous volley of musketry. 

So commenced the first battle in the new campaign for Vicks- 
burg, and the first union volleys were fired by Iowa men. The 
full Iowa battery opened, as did other field guns, in reply to 
several guns of the enemy, whose shells and balls and canister 
crashed through the trees and fences for an hour. Then a pause 
came, and both sides waited for daylight. 

With the rising sun, the rebel batteries again opened, and 
their infantry sprang to the attack. The conflict was soon 
raging along both roads, and with success on the union side at the 
right, though Osterhaus, on the north road, made little progress. 
For hours the fighting was severe. Grant, himself, came on the 
field at ten o'clock, and soon parts of Gen. McPherson's corps 
came forward to help. 

By eleven, Stone's brigade in the right center had orders to 
charge the enemy's lines in their immediate front. The men 
advanced for the purpose in double lines of battalions, through 
a deep hollow whose sides were covered with heavy cane and 
underbrush. On reaching an open field they delivered a fire so 
steady and so withering that the enemy gave way and ran. The 
union line followed slowly, the Twenty-third Iowa in advance; 
but, in another mile found the enemy heavily re-enforced and 
again awaiting it. Again heavy fighting occurred in Stone's 
brigade, and the battle raged to right and left, until the enemy, 
fairly defeated on his own ground, withdrew. 
I. W. T.— 14 



210 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

McPherson had materially aided in the victory, by getting 
one of his divisions along a difficult ridge to the enemy's right 
flank. The whole country was ridges and ravines, cane brakes 
and hollows — "stood on edge," in the words of Gen. Grant. It 
was an awful place to fight in, and gave the enemy great advan- 
tages. 

Col. Stone, in his report, complimented highly the leader of 
the Twenty-third Iowa, Lt.-Col. Glasgow, Col. Merrill of the 
Twenty-first Iowa, Maj. Atherton, commanding the Twenty- 
second Iowa, and Lieut. Waterbury of the Twenty-third Iowa, 
who acted as aide. Col. Stone, himself, received the warm com- 
mendations of the division commander. He gave out in the 
afternoon of the battle from exhaustion, and was succeeded in 
command by Col. Merrill — but lived to fight again and to 
become governor of the loyal state whose men he had been 
leading. 

" Col. Merrill," says Gen. Carr, " was wounded, and he was the 
first in battle and the last to leave the field." He was the 
second hero of the day to become a governor of Iowa. No regi- 
ment was truer or braver than his. Captains Jacob Swivel, J. 
M. Harrison, E. Boardman and J. M. Watson were compli- 
mented for gallantry. Capt. Crooke, with Co. B of the Twenty- 
first Iowa, was the first to receive the fire of the rebel pickets. 
Sergeant Kihst of the regiment captured a rebel dispatch bearer. 

The Twenty-third Iowa led the brigade advance in the after- 
noon, fought gallantly and lost more heavily than any other 
Iowa regiment engaged. It and its gallant leader, Lt.-Col. 
Glasgow, were highly complimented by Gen. Carr, division 
commander. 

Sergt. Wm. R. Leebart, of the First Iowa battery was 
wounded and mentioned for gallantry. 

Among the wounded of the brigade were the brave Lt.-Col. 
Dunlap of the Twenty-first, Lieutenants Wm. De Camp, John 
Francisco, D. W. Henderson and Adjt. D. J. Davis of the 
Twenty-second, and Capt. Wm. R. Henry and Lieut. D. P. Ballard 
of the Twenty-third. 

The Twenty-eighth Iowa also fought heroically at Port 




GENERAL JAMES WILSON. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 211 

Gibson, but in another division and farther to the left. It was 
their first engagement, but " they fought" says Col. Connell, 
their commander, " with fearless spirit and determination. 1 ' The 
other Iowa regiments present, the Fifth, Tenth and others were 
held in reserve or participated but slightly in the battle. 

The losses of the Iowa regiments were as follows: the 
Twentjvfirst Iowa, 17 wounded; the Twenty-second Iowa, 2 killed 
and 13 wounded; the Twenty-third Iowa, 6 killed and 27 
wounded and the Twenty-eighth Iowa, 1 killed and 16 wounded. 

That evening Grant's army marched into Port Gibson. The 
first act in the new drama of Vicksburg was finished. 

RAYMOND AND JACKSON. 

Port Gibson had proven an important victory for Grant, for 
the way toward Vicksburg was now open, and on " dry land." 
The Rebels immediately abandoned the strong post of Grand Gulf, 
with its armament of heavy guns and batteries, leaving Grant's 
left flank clear and ready to advance. He determined to grasp 
the advantages before him at once, and to hurry his army along 
the Big Black river toward a point half way between Vicksburg 
and Jackson, the state capital, where Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
was already assembling a second rebel army. In this position, 
Grant could strike right or left, and whip the enemy in detail. 

McPherson's corps moved well to the right, slightly in 
advance, in the direction of Raymond. The rest of the army 
moved north, parallel with the Black river, and all troops were 
kept within supporting distance. 

To cover Jackson and to threaten Grant's right flank, a rebel 
force had been advanced to Raymond. On May 12th, at four 
o'clock in the morning, McPherson's corps struck the videttes 
of this force in front of the town. Gen. John A. Logan, com- 
manding a division, was in advance, and by eleven o'clock, the 
battle of Raymond was being fought. Quinby's division, com- 
manded by Crocker of Iowa, was ordered to the front as supports. 
It contained the Fifth, Tenth and Seventeenth Iowa regiments, 
but as the enemj 7 gave way after two hours hard fighting, they 
were but little under fire. 



212 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

At five p. m., McPherson's troops marched into Raymond. 
The enemy fell back on Jackson, toward which point Grant 
suddenly turned his whole army, marching by nearly parallel 
roads. It was his chance, and he saw it. The Rebels under 
Pemberton were marching out of Vicksburg, expecting to be 
attacked at Edwards station. While they were waiting Grant's 
shock in line of battle, that general was wheeling his divis- 
ions toward Jackson, and on the 14th, at ten o'clock a. m., 
in the midst of an awful thunder storm, the cannon of the 
union army opened on the capital of Mississippi. 

Grant advanced on Jackson by two lines — the right, under 
Sherman, from Mississippi Springs, near Raymond, and the left 
under McPherson, marching from Clinton. The two lines were 
nearly parallel, but were from three to five miles apart. 

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was in command of the Rebels in 
the city in person, and had about twenty-five thousand men with 
him. When McPherson's advance ran on to the enemy's first 
lines outside his fortifications, a terrible rain was falling. When, 
shortly, the fight opened, the shocks of thunder were so sudden 
and explosive and so commingled with the artillery, the soldiers 
could not tell the thunder from the cannon. 

On McPherson's line, in Quinby's division, which was led by 
Crocker, the Iowa men had the advance, and the post of honor. 
They were the Fifth, Tenth and Seventeenth Iowa regiments. 
The outer lines of the Rebels were some distance outside of the 
city and encircled it from Pearl river on the north around to 
the same river on the south. Crocker's division was all 
deployed in line of battle by 11 a. m., with John A. Logan's 
troops as a reserve. Between the line and the rebel works was 
a creek, lined with thick brush and willows, with an open field 
beyond, and woods on right and left. The creek was quickly 
crossed under a heavy artillery fire; but at the edge of the open 
field that sloped up to the rebel works, the line was checked. 

Suddenly the whole division was ordered to charge. The 
advance, under a fire of artillery and musketry, was magnifi- 
cently made, as the line reached into the woods on either hand, 
with its center moving straight up through the open field. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 213 

Steadily forward, firing as they went, the long line moved on, 
not heeding the withering fire that thinned their ranks at every 
volley. Half way up, and the charge so earnest alarms the 
rebel front. They yield and run, leaving their entrenchments, 
their field batteries, and their heavy guns, in the hands of the 
assaulters. Jackson, the capital, has fallen. 

Sherman's advance on the right had been easier, and a flank- 
ing movement by Gen. Tuttle had forced the rebels there to 
desert their cannon and fly back over the river. 

In McPherson's advance, Crocker's assaulting column had 
suffered severely. The brave Seventeenth Iowa, in its fierce 
charge, lost 80 men, out of only 350 engaged. It was led by 
Col. D. B. Hillis, and its advance was the first inside the rebel 
works. Capt. Houston, though wounded, alone captured three 
Rebels and took them with him to the hospital. Captains Hicks 
and Johnson, together with Lieutenants Kenderdine, Skelton, 
Browne, and Woodrow were all wounded, and Lieut. John M. 
Inskeep was killed. The colonel commended Lt.-Col. Wever, 
Adjt. Woolsey and Captains Craig, Houston and Walden for cool- 
ness and duty, though the entire command was conspicuous for 
extreme gallantry that day. 

The losses in the other Iowa regiments engaged were small. 
The Fifth lost but 4 men, while the loss of the Fourth is not 
given. The Thirty-fifth, fighting at the right, lost 2. Yet all 
were in line, and did their duty. 

The Fourth Iowa cavalry was constantly on the move at front 
or flanks, and its sevice was valuable and recognized. " It was 
composed of as good men, 1 ' said Gov. Kirkwood, " as Iowa ever 
sent to the field." 

When Grant rode into Jackson with Sherman that afternoon, 
he found thirty-five pieces of cannon, and much public property 
as trophies.* He was scarcely dismounted, when he learned that 
Pemberton was to march and attack his rear, while Johnston 
should swing around northwest from Jackson, and the two 

*On entering the town, Grant and Sherman looked into a cotton factory, 
where the men and women had unconcernedly kept at work during the 
battle as if nothing were happening. They were making cloth for rebel 
uniforms. That night the buildings were burned down. 



214 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

attack and try to destroy the union army somewhere near Clin- 
ton, fifteen miles away. The order was sent to Pemberton by 
Johnston, by three different couriers. One of these happened 
to be a loyal man, and he took the dispatch straiqht into the 
federal camp. Grant at once set all his divisions in motion, 
facing Vicksburg, proposing to concentrate in the neighborhood 
of Bolton, about half way between Jackson and Vicksburg. 

Pemberton was all at sea as to Grant's movements and was 
himself not following the orders of his commander. Defeat and 
danger threatened every movement he made. At last he com- 
menced to turn south a little, to strike Grant's base of supplies 
and so cut him off. But Grant had no base — he was loose 
from everything. All communication with the North was 
gone. His army slept in fields and on roadsides, and lived on 
whatever it could pick up on the nearest plantations. A new kind 
of war had commenced and Pemberton did not know it. So he 
marched for the base that was not. Swollen creeks and broken 
bridges checked his movement, and at the last moment, he 
changed his plan and started north again to try to join John- 
ston at Clinton, as he had first been ordered to do. 

This movement brought on the important and hard fought 
battle of 

CHAMPION HILLS. 

May 16, 1863. 

Grant's divisions moving west from Jackson and in almost 
parallel lines, struck Pemberton's front well posted on the high, 
wooded hills of Champion's farm, some twenty-five miles east of 
Vicksburg. It was a strong position, and one dangerous to 
assault. Pemberton decided to fight, and possibly to settle the 
fate of Vicksburg among the woods, rocks, and ravines of this 
commanding position. The hill was wooded and in many 
places stood very large magnolia trees in full bloom. 

The da3 r was exceedingly hot, and Grant's troops, since cross- 
ing the Mississippi, had done nothing but march and fight. Much 
of the marching had been done at night, and every road in the 
great triangle of Port Gibson, Jackson and Vicksburg, had con- 
stantly been filled with marching soldiers. The union divisions, 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 215 

without abase, with the great river behind them making retreat 
impossible, and without headquarters — cut off and wholly in the 
enemy's country, were tramping wherever ordered. Some were 
foraging for food and feed, and some hurrying to cover 
threatened points. The rebel army had been doing much the 
same thing at the same time, — and now, in the hot woods of 
Champion Hills, with empty stomachs and emptier canteens, the 
two armies met in a decisive battle. 

It was the 16th of May. Hovey's division, including two gal- 
lant Iowa regiments, the Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-eighth, 
marching from Bolton, was the first to strike the Rebels on their 
left center, and bring on the engagement. Their position was 
across the road from Jackson to Vicksburg, near to Champion's 
house. They captured a battery, but could not hold it, and were 
hard pressed though desperately fighting, when Logan's division, 
and then Crocker's, with several more Iowa regiments, were 
pushed in to their aid. Grant was at the front in person. 

When Hovey's division, with the Twenty-fourth and Twenty- 
eighth Iowa, first entered the engagement, the fighting was 
terrific, as the fearful loss in those regiments shows. They 
fought in Slack's brigade. The Twenty-eighth was first at the 
left, where a determined flanking movement of the enemy was 
defeated — then at the right of the brigade, and though once 
overpowered and driven back, they rallied and helped to ohase 
the enemy from the field. The regiment lost 100 men, mostly 
killed and wounded, and the number severely and mortally 
wounded was astonishing. Four companies of the regiment 
came out of the fight without a commissioned officer. Capt. 
Benj. F. Kirby was killed, as was Lieut. John J. Legan. 
Lieut. John Buchanan lost a good right arm, and many of the 
men died from their wounds. Capt. John A. Staley was taken 
prisoner. "Of this regiment and the Twenty-fourth Iowa, 
(the Temperance regiment) what shall I say?" writes Gen. 
Hovey. " Of them the state of Iowa may well be proud." 

The Twenty-fourth, in the same brigade, fought like veterans, 
and dashed past and over a well defended rebel battery. In the 
daring charge many brave officers and men fell, killed or 



216 IOWA IN' WAR TIMES. 

wounded. Araoug the killed were Captains Win. Carbee, Silas 
D. Johnson and Lieut. Chauncey Lawrence. The gallant Maj. 
Ed. Wright was wounded, as were Captains Leander Clark, J. 
W. Martin and Lieutenants S. J. McKinley, J. C. Gue, and S. J. 
Dillman. One hundred and ninety-five out of the 417 who 
entered the fight, were killed, wounded or missing. That meant 
nearly every other man, and the men of that noble regiment 
who so heroically gave life and limb for their country that day 
were of Iowa's best blood. Nowhere, in all the dreadful four 
years' struggle, was the state of Iowa more honored by the pat- 
riotic valor of its sons than at Champion Hills by the Twenty- 
fourth regiment. 

The Seventeenth Iowa fought in Crocker's division, Holmes's 
brigade. Inch by inch this regiment drove the Alabamians in 
their front through woods and ravines, up hill and down hill, 
re-capturing the battery that had been taken and then lost in 
the earlier part of the fight. Three times in two hours this Ala- 
bama battery changed hands. In the charge for these guns, the 
Seventeenth also captured many prisoners and a battle flag. 
Five times the Seventeenth Iowa charged the Rebels at Champion 
Hills, and each time under a murderous fire of musketry and 
artillery. The regiment lost 57 of its men in the short fight. 
Among its wounded were Captains A. A. Stuart, J. F. Walden, 
and Lieutenants Daniel W. Tower and Jas. W. Craig. Lieut. 
Tower lost a leg. He, with Lieutenants C. W. Woodrow, Geo. 
W. Deal, Sergt. Swearingen and Corp. A. S. Trussel, who 
captured a flag, were all mentioned for great gallantry. Lt.-Col. 
Wever, who led in one of the charges, and Adjt. Woolsey 
were also much complimented by Col. Hillis for bravery. Both 
had their horses shot under them. 

The Fifth and the Tenth Iowa were in Boomer's brigade of 
Crocker's division. The Fifth Iowa fought as desperately at 
Champion Hills as any regiment on that memorable field. It 
entered the fight with its division and on the run, at about 
eleven o'clock, and under the vertical rays of a boiling sun 
The regiment had marched hard, and for twenty-four hours had 
little sleep, water, or food. It was led to the front by Lt.-Col. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 217 

E. S. Sampson, and in the bloody battle that followed, lost more 
than a quarter of the number of its men engaged. On its right, 
in the same brigade (Boomer's), were the Tenth Iowa and the 
Twenty-sixth Missouri, while the Ninety-third Illinois stood 
like a blazing rock on its left. 

Just as Crocker's division, with these and other regiments, 
came up, Hovey's hard fighting division, overpowered, was 
falling back — its lines pushed out of the woods down the slope 
over the open, and almost up to Champion's house. Disaster 
seemed inevitable. Hundreds of wounded men, with faces 
begrimed with powder and blood, met Crocker's re-enforcing 
lines as they hurried into the wood. The crashing of the mus- 
ketry was simply appalling. Such terrific salvos from infantry 
were seldom heard in battle. 

A few moments before the Fifth Iowa started in on the 
double quick, Grant, the Commander, rode up behind the regi- 
ment.* Grant was brave spite of the bullets that were whizzing 
past and through the ranks, and though occasional men were 
falling where they stood, the quiet and unassuming general dis- 
mounted from his bay mare and calmly leaned against the beast's 
shoulder smoking a cigar, as seemed a necessity with him. It 
was not bravado. In quiet tones he gave orders to mounted 
aides who dashed off to other parts of the battle field. Certainly 
few words were uttered by him, though our position at that 
point, at that moment, seemed perilous. Once a poor soldier, 
wounded and torn and groaning, was borne close by him on a 
litter. A glance of pity seemed to change his countenance — but 
for a moment, only. Then the face, so apparently unconcerned 
as to the dreadful surroundings, quietly turned to an officer 
waiting near him. His voice could not be heard. He was 
dressed in half uniform, wearing his general's yellow belt, but 
not his sword. His countenance seemed handsomer, more business- 
like and more soldierly than in any of his pictures, save that of 
Marshall's. How we all wished that Grant would leave the 
spot, and ride away from the danger. Yet spite of the bullets 

*The writer, acting sergeant major of the Fifth Iowa at the time, 
happened to be near Gen. Grant. He permits himself to record some of the 
incidents of the battle witnessed by himself. 



218 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

whizzing past our heads, how many faces turned to glance at him, 
feeling that he was to see the regiment of which we were so 
proud start in on the charge. We forgot our own danger in 
our fears for him. Ah! many a man of that noble regiment was 
looking on Grant for the last time. 

" Forward 1 ' — the order came — " double quick" — " fix bayo- 
nets" — and on the brigade went — over the open, into the sloping 
woods and ravines, up to the very front, charging and yelling as 
we ran. How we yelled! Once at the ridge's crest, in the woods, 
the line halts, and for an hour and a half stands facing a fearful 
musketry, answering back volleys that made the hills roar as if 
the elements were in commotion. 

Other masses of Rebels poured over on to the front of the Fifth 
and Tenth, when some regiments to the left breaking away, and 
cross fires reaching the left flank and even rear, the line gave 
way. It was a fearful race in the hot sun ; and with the hotter bul- 
lets following, till the men rallied in a new line, protected by 
batteries. The color bearer had fallen, but in the chase rear- 
wards Corp. Teter picked up the bullet-ridden flag. At that 
instant, a comrade cried to him, " Let's halt and give them 
another round." With an oath the corporal lifted the flag in 
air: "I'll stay here so long as a man of the Fifth Iowa will stay 
by me," — and he waved it in defiance of the increasing hail of 
bullets, and of the fierce line of rebels advancing and yelling: 
" Kill those men — capture that flag." There the two comrades 
stood, screaming to the powder begrimed and blood covered 
men, passing rearward, to stop and help save the flag. A few 
braved to halt in the storm of bullets and answered the rebel yell 
with the crack of their rifles. Nearer came the yelling line, 
firing as they ran. Never will the writer of this forget that little 
group of men with the flag, standing there in the broiling sun, 
the rushing, blood stained men, and the bullets cutting down 
our flying comrades. It was of no use. The little group 
guarding the flag also fell back, but they took the colors with 
them. 

Farther back the regiment formed a new line, from which no 
soldier of the Fifth yielded a step that day. The Rebels came on, 



IOWA AT VIOKSBURG. 219 

but it was to meet the rallied and solid lines that could not be 
moved. The men fired till the last round of ammunition was 
spent and then, still holding the Rebels at bay, took the cart- 
ridges from the bodies of the dead and wounded, and shot them 
into the faces of the now dismayed and retreating enemy. It 
was by such terrible fighting that the battle of Champion Hills 
was won. 

Once, before the line left the front ridge, just when the firing 
and the roar of battle were the greatest, a boy, a stripling of 
perhaps sixteen, came running up to the writer at the left of the 
regiment. " My regiment is gone," he cried, " my regiment has 
left! what shall I do?" His face was black with powder, and 
his eyes were filled with tears. " Stay here. Fire right here, 
with us," was answered him. To the last moment, that boy 
stood in the battle and loaded and fired his musket. When our 
line, overpowered, fell back, and the Rebels pursued, I saw him 
no more, but after the battle an officer of the Seventeenth Iowa 
found a boy near the same spot, with both legs shofoff, and 
dead. 

The trees where that hero boy stood and fired so long at the 
left of the Fifth Iowa were filled with thousands of bullets. On 
the sides of one large oak the scars of more than two hundred 
balls were counted that evening. Near by, Capt. S. B. Lindsay 
and Lieut. Jerome Darling, with many men were killed, and 
Lieutenants J. Limbocker and Thompson were wounded. It 
seemed almost a mystery that any man escaped from that line 
alive. The loss of the Fifth was 19 killed and 75 wounded, out 
of only 350 engaged. Maj. Marshall, then adjutant, received 
just praise for his gallantry, as did Captains Lee and Pickerell. 

What the Fifth Iowa had been doing in that hot battle, that 
had the Tenth Iowa been doing equally well. They were in the 
same brigade and fought together on the same fierce line. They 
suffered, besides, a severe enfilading fire on their flank. Their 
losses were very great in both officers and men, and attest the 
heroism of that brave regiment. Thirty-four were killed and 
124 were wounded. The Christian gentleman and the gallant 
soldier, Capt. Poag, was shot dead, and lay there among the 



220 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

leaves, a bullet in his forehead, and his feet to the foe. So, too, 
fell Lieutenants Brown and Terry, while Captains Holson, 
Swallow, Hobson, Kuhn and Lusby, with Lieutenants Meekins, 
Wright and Gregory, were wounded. It was a sad day for the 
noble Tenth — so many of its men left dead on the field of 
battle. But to the Iowa regiments that battle field was especi- 
ally a field of honor. The battle was the important one of the 
whole campaign, and it had been fought by Hovey's, Logan's 
and Crocker's divisions, McClernand's forces coming up on 
Grant's left too late to be severely engaged. Had McClernand 
been up as promptly as others, Pemberton's whole army would 
have been captured, as Logan's fighting division had flanked it 
and well nigh cut it off from all possible retreat. Even as it was, 
Champion Hills was one of the most complete union successes 
of the war. It was fought against superior numbers, and on the 
enemy's chosen position, and without rifle pits or aids of any 
kind. It was a well planned, hard fought battle, and the Rebels 
were faiisly and terribly beaten, with a loss of 24 pieces of artil- 
lery, some 3,000 killed and wounded, and 3,000 prisoners. The 
union loss was 2,441. 

By McClernand's failure to get his divisons into the fight ear- 
lier, more than half the union army was not engaged. Loring's 
division of Rebels was cut off, only escaping capture by a cir- 
cuitous and flying night march southwards, not getting back 
to Vicksburg at all. Pemberton's army, badly beaten, fled that 
evening to the railroad crossing of the Big Black river, a few 
miles nearer Vicksburg, closely pursued by the victorious troops 
of Grant's army. 

BATTLE OF BLACK RIVER BRIDGE. 
May 17, 1S63. 

Before nine o'clock of the morning of the 17th, another 
battle had been fought. Once more Iowa regiments were put 
to the post of danger and once more won a victory. 

Pemberton had thrown up breastworks in the open field, 
nearly a mile east of the river, and in front of the bridge he pro- 
posed defending. These breastworks, crossing a peninsula 
formed by a big bend in the river, were filled with rebel regi- 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 221 

ments and field batteries. Carr's division, in which was Lawler's 
brigade, with the Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty- 
third Iowa regiments, came in sight of the rebel works at day- 
light, having marched several hours in the night. The semi- 
circle of rebel breastworks was made of cotton bales covered 
with earth — the kind of works that were so effective against the 
British under Packenham, at New Orleans. Lawler's brigade 
was put at the extreme right of the union line, its right resting 
almost on the river, then a high, rapid and turbulent stream. 

The treeless and open bottom across which the rebel works 
ran, was so covered by guns from both sides of the river as to 
make an assault seem impossible. To add to the danger, a deep, 
narrow bayou with two feet of water in it, stretched around in 
front of the rebel breastworks, serving as a perfect ditch or 
moat. Spite of it all, Grant's forces were preparing for a 
general assault. 

At that very moment, as Gen. Grant tells us, a staff officer/ 
rode up, bringing from Halleck a peremptory order for Grant to 
abandon the campaign and take his army to Port Hudson, 
to help Gen. Banks. Halleck, of course, knew nothing of the 
recent victories. All communication with the North had been 
lost by cutting loose at the Mississippi river. 

" I think it is too late," said Grant, while the officer expostu- 
lated and felt that Halleck's order should be obeyed. The words 
were scarcely spoken, when Grant, glancing to the right of his 
lines, saw a dashing officer in his shirt sleeves, leading his brig- 
ade to the assault. It was Gen. Lawler and the men of the 
Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third Iowa, and the 
Eleventh Wisconsin, rushing into a hailstorm of bullets, in an 
assault on the works. 

Lawler's brigade, like the rest of Carr's division, had been 
partially covered at the right by a cluster of woods near the 
river. Close inspection had convinced Lawler that by appear- 
ing from the woods and pushing close along the river, a sudden 
assault might be made, and the works entered. 

At a given signal, the charge across the open bottom and the 
assault was commenced. " It was," said Gen. Grant, " a daring 



222 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

movement. 1 ' Lawler's men, mostly from Iowa, left the woods 
with a loud cheer, and spite of a terrific fire of musketry in their 
faces, crossed the open bottom on a run, waded the dangerous 
bayous under murderous fire, and in five minutes were inside the 
enemy's works.* The Twenty-third Iowa, led by Col. Kinsman, 
was in the advance. The Twenty-first Iowa and the Eleventh 
Wisconsin followed. The Twenty-second Iowa, nearer the river, 
moved close along its banks, flanked the enemy, and took a great 
number of prisoners. 

When the assaulting column, yelling and firing, reached the 
ditch in front of the rebel lines, the enemy dropped their guns 
and rushed for the rear. Some escaped, hundreds were cut off 
by the Twenty-second Iowa and captured, and scores jumped 
into the river and were drowned in their effort to get across.f 
The works and eighteen cannon were in possession of the 
assaulters. The charge of Lawler's brigade was one of the bril- 
liant events of the war. It cost, however, the life of many a 
gallant Iowa man. Two hundred and seventy-nine Federals 
were killed or wounded, and nearly all in this assaulting column. 

The names of the Twenty-first and the Twenty-third Iowa 
were that morning written high on the scroll of Iowa's military 
honor. With the commander in chief and half the army look- 
ing on, they had successfully assaulted a position that might 
have stood in Grant's path to Vicksburg for a month. Col. 

* Gen. Grant, as already stated, witnessed the brilliant charge in person, 
and there on the battle field wrote the following note in pencil on a bit of 
torn paper. It has never before been printed. 

May 17th, 10:30 a.m. 
" Dear Gen'l: Lawler's brigade stormed the enemy's works a few 
minutes since ; carried it, capturing from 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners, 10 guns, so 
far as heard from, and probably more will be found. The enemy have fired 
both bridges. A. J. Smith captured 10 guns this morning, with teams, men 
and ammunition. I send you a note from Col. Wright. Yours, 

U. S. Grant, Maj. Gen'l. 
To Maj. Gen'l Sherman, ComoVg Seventeenth Army Corps. 

4-"Now's your time to give 'em hell, boys," cried Gen. Osterhaus to 
some of his battery men, when from another point on the field he saw the 
success of the charge, and noticed hundreds of Rebels running back along 
the high trestlework approaching the bridge at the river. Twenty cannon 
were instantly turned on the trestlework from different points, and the bodie? 
of scores of the flying fugitives were dashed to the ground below, or into 
the foaming river. 







^fu^w/S 



Colonel 4th Iowa Cavalry, 

Brevet-Brig. General, 

U. S. V. 



IOWA AT VIOKSBUBG. 223 

Kinsman of the Twenty-third, bravest of the brave, and one of 
the state's most esteemed officers, was shot dead. It was a noble 
life, sacrificed on his country's altar. Oapt. McCray, and Lieu- 
tenants S. G. Beckwith, J. D. Ewing and Washington Rawlings. 
of the same regiment, were wounded — the first three mortally. 
The total loss of the Twenty-third in killed and wounded in this 
charge was 87 — a fearful loss considering the number engaged. 

In this charge, too, fell, severely wounded, Col. Merrill of the 
Twenty-first Iowa. He fell at the head of his noble regiment, in 
the midst of a shower of bullets. A braver man never rode into 
battle. Lt.-Col. Dunlap took his place, and in his report of the 
assault, speaks of the great bravery of Maj. S. Or. Van Anda, of 
Captains Harrison, Swivel, Voorhees, Watson, Boardman, Wilson 
and Crooks, — and Lieutenants Dolson, Childs, Jackson and Rob- 
erts. Acting Adjt. Howard was shot down, mortally wounded in 
the charge. Lieutenants Andrew Y. McDonald and W. W. Lyons 
were wounded. The brigade that made this memorable assault 
was composed of the same troops that had fought so well under 
Col. Stone, at Port Gibson. In their charge, they had captured 
a number greater than their whole command. The loss of the 
Twenty-first in the battle was 83 killed and wounded, out of 
less than 300 engaged. 

That day and the next night, Grant's army marched up close 
to the walls of Vicksburg. On the same day, the Fourth Iowa 
cavalry, under Col. Swan, having crossed the Big Black with 
Gen. Sherman, was swung off to the right to reconnoitre in the 
direction of the fortifications at Haines's and Snyder's Bluffs on 
the Yazoo river. Advancing a few miles the report came that 
the road and the fortifications were occupied by six or seven 
thousand Rebels. Col. Swan believing it imprudent for his small 
force to proceed, at once about-faced. Capt. J. H. Peters of 
Company B protested, and obtained permission to take a 
select company of volunteers, and proceed close to Fort Snyder. 
He went forward on a quick gallop, and capturing a number of 
Rebels on the way, appeared suddenly at the very entrance of the 
rebel works. The rebel garrison was mostly gone, and a quick 
charge on the guard left behind, and Peters, with his Iowa cav- 



224 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

airy, was in the fort. The fort on Haines's Bluff, evacuated, was 
also taken possession of, and a federal gunboat happening to be 
in sight down the river, it was signaled to, and the works and 
cannon of Snyder's Bluff turned over to its officers. Capt. 
Peters and his daring men hurried back to Grant's army with 
the news, and daylight of the next morning saw mule teams 
hauling supplies from the Yazoo river to the hungry soldiers. 
Grant's right wing now touched water again and the line to his 
new base of supplies on the Yazoo river was open. An Iowa 
regiment had been the first to march from the Mississippi river 
below Grand Gulf — an Iowa regiment was the first to water its 
horses in the Yazoo above Vicksburg. The siege of Vicksburg 
had begun. 

THE SIEGE. 

Twenty Iowa regiments were present at the siege of Vicks- 
burg. The same troops that had sailed or waded through end- 
less bayous and lagoons — that had marched two hundred miles 
in a little over a fortnight, and fought and won six battles in as 
many days, were now ready to take Vicksburg by siege or by 
storm. The attempts to take the city and let free the waters of 
the Mississippi, had already cost the union army 10,000 men 
killed or wounded. Other loyal lives were ready for the sacrifice, 
and Grant's soldiers urged him to assault the lines at once. 

The morning of May 19th saw the union army forming a 
sipii-circular line outside the Vicksburg fortifications. Sherman 
held the right, McClernand the left, and McPherson the center. 
The investment was not quite complete, as there was a gap on the 
left for a few days, but later, when that was closed, the union 
line was nearly eight miles long. Confronting it, were fortifica- 
tions pronounced by Gen. Sherman to be stronger than the 
works of Sevastopol. The soldiers defending them were veter- 
ans, and on their own soil. Outside the line of the investers, 
the Rebels, under Gen. Johnston, were rapidly collecting along 
Black river a second army to attack Grant's rear. It was a boast 
in the South that Grant, blindly placing himself between these 
two armies, was lost. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 225 

In fact, the gathering of this second army at Grant's rear was 
an important factor in determining him to assault the seemingly 
impregnable works at two o'clock of that same 19th of May. 
They were brave men who marched to storm such lines. The 
main redoubts were ten feet high, with ditches in front seven 
feet deep, making the top of the parapet seventeen feet high. 
They were twenty-five feet thick. From fort to fort, on the 
long line, ran intrenchments ten feet thick and five feet high, 
with ditches four feet deep. One hundred and twenty-eight 
cannon defended these strong positions, not counting the many 
siege guns and the many strong batteries on the side next the 
river, for defense against the gunboats. The country about was 
all hills, cane brakes and deep ravines. Nature vied with the 
Rebels in making Vicksburg the most defensible position on the 
continent. It was pronounced by Pemberton the most impor- 
tant point, too, in the confederacy. 

Grant believed that the recent defeats of the Rebels had 
alarmed them, and that they would possibly not fight much on 
the 19th. He was mistaken. The assault took place and only 
resulted in getting better and nearer positions; no work was 
taken. 

Sherman's troops on the right did most of the assaulting and 
did it fiercely — planting flags on the enemy's parapets under a 
dreadful fire; but it was of no use. They withdrew at dark. 

Many of the Iowa regiments were under fire that day, but 
few joined in the immediate assault. The Fourth, however, lost 
considerably, and during the whole siege some 80 of its men 
were killed or wounded. The Twelfth also lost a few. Capt. 
W. W. Warner was wounded. 

The failure on the 19th did not cool the ardor of either sol- 
diers or commanders. The position of Johnston's army in the 
rear was becoming a terrible menace. If Vicksburg could be 
taken by assault, the union army could suddenly turn on John- 
ston and destroy him. 

Ten o'clock of the morning of the 22d of May was set for 
the second attempt to storm the works. From daylight of that 
morning till the moment for the assault, every cannon of the 
I. W. T.— 15 






226 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

besieging line poured its thunder of shot and shell into the forts 
in front. Then the union lines advanced from the near ravines 
where they had lain secreted, and long and desperately assaulted 
the forts and the intrenchments that now blazed with rebel 
musketry. 

The soldiers of Iowa were in the van of that awful charge. 
They only, and but few of them, ever reached the inside of the 
rebel forts — and of that few but a handful came out alive. 
There were Iowa regiments in almost every division of the 
investing line. At the given signal 35,000 men had rushed 
from cover to the assault. Such a storming of fortifications 
had never before been seen in America. On the right, some of 
Sherman's troops advanced under a fearful fire of musketry, 
reached the ditches and planted the union flag on the parapet 
of the fort. The enfilading fire, however, was too severe to 
permit of progressing another inch. Many of the men lay 
close up to the forts, or in the ditches, till night permitted 
them to withdraw. 

Among the Iowa regiments either advancing or supporting 
under Sherman that day, were the Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, 
Twelfth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth, Thirty-first and 
Thirty-fifth. The Twenty-fifth was on the advance line and 
gained the heights and the ditch, but not the fort. Capt. J. D. 
Spearman was among the badly wounded. Private Isaac Mickey 
was mentioned in reports for special gallantry in carrying an 
order along an exposed line. The regiment lost about 30 in killed 
and wounded. Col. Charles H. Abbott was killed in the assault 
while gallantly leading his Thirtieth Iowa 'through a storm of 
bullets. Among the wounded of his regiment were Lieutenants 
S. J. Chester, David Letner and J. P. Millikin (the latter two 
mortally), and some 60 non-com inissoned officers and privates. 

The Twenty-sixth Iowa, led by the gallant Col. Milo Smith, 
had 45 officers and men killed or wounded in the two days 
assaults. Capt. A. D. Gaston, Lieutenants John W. Mason, 
Lewis Rider, Wm. M. Magden and N. W. Wood were all 
wounded, and so, too, was the gallant Col. Smith himself. 
Lieut. Pearson was captured. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 227 

The Ninth Iowa, in this dreadful assault, lost nearly 80 men. 
Seven officers were killed or mortally wounded, viz.: Captains 
Kelsey and Washburn, and Lieutenants Martin, Wilburn, Owen, 
Jones and Tyrrell. Among the wounded were Captains 
McSweeney and Little, and Lieutenants Sutherland, Bartholo- 
mew and Kemery. To this fatal list was to be added another 20 
killed and wounded during the siege or the assault of the day 
before. All the color guard who bravely planted the flag on the 
enemy's parapet were shot down. J. M. Elson, a color bearer, 
especially distinguished himself for bravery in trying to scale 
the works, and was shot in both thighs. The flag was saved by 
the extreme gallantry of Adjt. Granger. 

The other Iowa regiments were slightly engaged, or used in 
support. Lt.-Col. Jenkins and Lieut. James G. Dawson of the 
Thirty-first and Lieut. Jas. C. Maxwell of the Eighth, were 
among the wounded. Lieut. Robt. Anderson of the Twenty-first, 
was killed. 

At the center of the line, where McPherson's troops were 
charging up to the works, Iowa was represented by the Fifth, 
Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seven- 
teenth regiments. Some of these were pushed forward as sup- 
ports — some were led right up to the rebel forts under an appal- 
ling fire of musketry. This was especially true of the Fifth and 
Tenth Iowa. These brave regiments not only charged up in 
front of their own lines, but in the afternoon made a second 
assault in front of McClernand at the left. They were among 
the re-enforcing regiments which Grant sent to the left that 
afternoon, under the impression that McClernand had taken part 
of the rebel lines. That second assault cost the Iowa regiments 
not only great losses in killed and wounded, but the competent 
commander of the brigade, Col. Boomer, was shot dead. Adjt. 
Delahoyd of the Tenth was wounded severely, and so too, was the 
gallant Capt. Head. The losses in the Fifth were 17; in the 
Tenth, 18 killed and wounded. Certain regiments of McCler- 
nand's wing of the army had come nearer capturing the fortifi- 
cations in their front that day than did any others. 

Lawler's brigade of Carr's division, including the Twenty- 



228 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third Iowa regiments, charged 
just south of the Jackson railroad.* Benton's brigade of the 
same division charged with them. The principal fort in front 
of Lawler occupied a prominent hill close to the railroad. Up 
this hill the Twenty-first and the Twenty-second Iowa went 
with a cheer, defying the hail storm of bullets that met them 
on the way-, and the awful enfilading fire from other angles in 
the intrenchments that struck them just as they reached the 
very ditch of the fort. It was a hot, dangerous time, when 
thirteen men of the Twenty-second Iowa, led by Sergt. Joseph 
E. Griffiths, climbed out of the ditcli over the shoulders of each 
other and right into the rebel fort Beauregard, killing or dis- 
persing the enemy within. Such valor is seldom witnessed in 
battle. The comrades of Griffiths in peril were John Robb, M. 
L. Clemmons, Alvin Drummond, Hezekiah Drummond, Wm. H. 
Needham, Ezra L. Anderson, Hugh Sinclair, N. C. Messenger, 
David Trine, Wm. Griffin, Allen Cloud, David Jordan and Rich- 
ard Arthur.f 

Brave as the deed was, it resulted in little. The enemy's guns 
so covered this captured fort as to make it untenable. Spite of 
the heroism of the whole regiment that day, the work was 
retaken by night. In the assault, many brave men fell. The 
total loss of the regiment was 164. Capt. James Robertson and 
Lieut. M. A. Robb of the Twenty-second were killed while lead- 
ing in the charge. Lt.-Col. Graham was captured. Col. Stone, 
leading the regiment, was slightly wounded , while Capt. John 
H. Gearkee, and Lieutenants John Remick and Mullins were 
severely wounded. 

In this gallant charge the Twenty-first Iowa lost heavily. 

*Detached from its brigade after the charge at Black River Bridge, to con- 
duct prisoners to Memphis, the Twenty-third Iowa distinguished itself at 
the battle of Milliken's Bend, June 7th, and then rejoined its brigade before 
Vicksburg. 

fit has been claimed by friends that Sergt. N. C. Messenger, now of Mar- 
shalltown, led the assaulting party into the fort. Maj. Atherton, of the 
Twenty-second Iowa, reporting the affair (page 472, Adjutant General's 
report for 1863), gives the credit to Griffiths and asks his promotion for the 
brave act. Gov. Stone, who was in command of the regiment until 
wounded, assures the author that Messenger, not Griffiths, entered the fort 
and earned the honors due extreme heroism. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 229 

More than a hundred of its brave men never came back with the 
line. Lt.-Col. Dunlap came up just after the charge, and was 
shot dead while talking with Col. Stone. He had been wounded 
at Port Gibson, and could not keep up with the line. His loss 
was severely felt. Maj. Van Anda, Captains J. M. Harrison and 
D. Greaves, with Lieutenants Allan Adams, G. H. Childs, Wm. 
A. Roberts and Samuel Bates were wounded — the last two 
mortally. Lieut. Bates was also captured. 

All that day the flags of the Twenty-second Iowa and the 
Seventy-seventh Illinois floated from the parapet of that rebel 
stronghold, while the soldiers of Lawler's brigade held the ditch 
and with hand grenades thrown out by the enemy conducted a 
hand to hand contest.* All along Grant's lines, troops from 
almost every state in the Northwest, had made terrific assaults, 
and in different places union flags were planted by brave hands 
on the parapets of rebel forts. In almost every regiment there 
were acts of individual heroism that day. Usually in front of 
the assaulting columns, a small band of soldiers would spring 
ahead with ladders to throw over the ditch of the fort. In each 
case these men were volunteers, and few of them survived the 
peril of their heroic deeds. While officers received promotion 
for the gallantry of the day, these heroic volunteer privates 
found only a shallow grave. 

In front of one of Sherman's divisions, 150 brave men volun- 
teered in the forlorn hope of going in advance with the ladders 
to the rebel ditch. "Their dead bodies, 1 ' says an eye witness, 
" soon obstructed the way ." Most of them were killed within five 
minutes after starting. The writer witnessed a band of these 
heroic men with ladders advancing to the rebel ditch in front 
of the Fifth and Tenth Iowa. The men who volunteered to do 
this perilous duty were the bravest heroes in all Grant's army. 
Their names are not of record, though they deserve to be writ- 
ten on shafts of marble and in letters of gold. 

*The belief that Vicksburg would have been taken that day, had McCIer- 
nand promptly received stronger re- enforcements, was entertained by very 
many at the time and by many more since then. It is, too, rather generally 
conceded that Gen. Grant did McClernand injustice in relieving him from 
command. President Lincoln himself thought so later. 



230 IOWA IN" WAE TIMES. 

The assaults of the 22d of May, spite of the heroism of the 
army, were failures. The rebel works were too strong to be 
taken by storm, and in the darkness the lines were withdrawn, 
and the siege by sapping and mining commenced. In the two 
assaults, more than 4,000 of Grant's army had been killed and 
wounded. 

Now commenced a kind of conflict unique in the history of 
warfare. Every man in the investing line became an army 
engineer. Day and night the soldiers worked at digging narrow, 
zigzag approaches to the rebel works. Intrench ments, rifle pits, 
and dirt covers were made in every conceivable direction. When 
intrenchments were safe and finished, still others, yet farther in 
advance, were made, as if by magic, in a single night. Other 
zigzag, underground lines were made, and saps and mines for 
explosion under forts. Every day the regiments, foot by foot, 
yard by yard, approached nearer the frowning, strong-armed 
rebel works. The soldiers burrowed like gophers and beavers — 
a spade in one hand and a musket in the other. The pickets 
were not squads of soldiers only; whole regiments filled the 
extremely advanced trenches all the time, being relieved only in 
the night. These regiments poured a constant fire of musketry 
into the embrasures and over the parapets of the forts. Day 
and night were heard the ceaseless firing and roar of musketry, 
whole batteries of artillery often joining in the midnight 
chorus, while the shells from the gunboats rose into the air like 
burning comets and fell into the devoted city. It was a wonder- 
ful spectacle. 

The rifle pits of the two armies were now so close that the pickets 
talked with each other and nightly traded tobacco for coffee. 
Sometimes, as if by sudden impulse, a fierce bombardment with 
all the artillery would take place — or a mine beneath a fort 
explode, throwing its occupants into the air, while whole regi- 
ments would dash into the fearful crater only to be driven out. 
Forty-two days and forty-two nights the singular siege went on, 
and they were bold Rebels who dared to show their heads in all 
that time above the parapets of their forts, or over the sand bags 
of which they made little breastworks outside the ditch. 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 231 

Inside the city, the rebels lived in caves and holes in the 
ground. No other life was possible, so frequent were the 
storms of shot and shell from the gunboats and the batteries, 
and the musketry from the rifle pits now right under the slopes 
of the forts. 

The history of one regiment during that historic siege was 
almost the history of all. In front of each the same perpetual 
skirmishing by day and by night went on — the same sapping 
and mining, the same slow advancing on the enemy's works, the 
same dangers that were scarcely second to battle. It was hard 
work for the union soldiers there, digging under the almost 
tropical sun of Mississippi. They lived in the deep ravines 
back of their lines, or in their rifle pits, forever loading and 
firing their muskets. Once Gov. Kirkwood and his adjutant- 
general, with Surgeon General Hughes, came down to visit 
the boys, and were serenaded by a storm of rebel cannon balls. 
They made speeches to the brave boys — the boys cheered a little, 
and, divining what was going on, the Rebels turned their batter- 
ies on the scene. 

Kirkwood honored and loved the soldiers. He knew what 
their sacrifices meant. He knew that they stood between the 
state and destruction — that there would be no state, no governor, 
no liberty, no life, but for these men in the ditches at Vicks- 
burg. " The heroism of our soldiers has made it a high privi- 
lege to be a citizen of Iowa," said he. So it had. 

The forty-two days of fighting, burrowing and besieging, were 
drawing to a close. Meantime, other troops were added to Grant's 
investing army. With them, came more from Iowa, until at last 
the proud state had thirty regiments besieging Vicksburg, or 
helping to keep back Joe Johnston's army in tfie rear. 

Then came that memorable day, that fete day of a nation, 
that victory day — Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Helena, — that dawn- 
ing of new light all over the North, that ringing of bells from 
sea to sea. With the joyous clangor of those bells, the knell 
of the rebel confederacy was sounded. From that 4th of July, 
the fate of the lost cause was sealed. Invasion of the North 
was a thing no more to be thought of — the confederacy was in 



232 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

twain. The men came out of the trenches that day, for Vicks- 
burg had fallen, and the waters of the great river "flowed 
unvexed to the sea." 

SIEGE OF JACKSON. 

A sequence of the victory at Vicksburg, was the rapid pursuit 
of Gen. Joe Johnston's army now flying toward Jackson. Since 
the 22d of June, Sherman, with a large force, had been at Grant's 
rear on the Big Black, prepared to follow and attack Johnston, 
the moment the city should surrender. The writer happened to 
be with his regiment, the Fifth, on the Big Black, at this time, 
and recalls with exceeding pleasure reading there an order to 
the regiment. That order announced the surrender of Vicks- 
burg an hour or so before. The men did not wait for the com- 
mand to "break ranks, 11 but simply shouted, fell on the grass, 
rolled, stood on their heads, shook hands and turned handsprings. 
The little liquor in the commissary was divided out, and every- 
body drank to Gen. Grant. 

Suddenly the march forward was begun, and over dusty roads, 
in an almost tropical heat, with almost no water fit to drink, the 
rebel army was pursued clear to Jackson. There, behind strong 
works, well manned, Johnston made a stand, and for a week was 
besieged by the forces of Sherman's army. There were many of 
the Iowa regiments from Vicksburg present with Sherman at 
Jackson, but two of them only were very severely engaged. 

The Sixth Iowa, under Col. John M. Corse, afterward major- 
general, was in Smith's division, and occupied with its brigade a 
position north and west of the town. On the 16th of July, Col. 
Corse was ordered to take command of a grand skirmish line, 
and to move up to the enemy's works along the whole front of 
the division, for the purpose of uncovering their position and bat- 
teries. At a given signal, the line, with the Sixth Iowa on the 
right, and the Ninety-seventh Indiana on the left, gallantly 
advanced, supported by two Ohio and Illinois regiments. The 
left of the line charged through open fields under a withering fire 
of musketry and batteries, holding their place long enough to 
accomplish their object. The advance turned out to be not only a 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 233 

slight reconnoissance, but rose almost to the severity of a battle? 
with the odds all against the union line. 

Corse himself led the Sixth Iowa on the right. "At the 
signal," says Corse, " the men dashed forward with a shout, met 
the line of the enemy's skirmishers and pickets, and drove them 
back, capturing eighteen or twenty and killing as many more. 
Clearing the timber they rushed out into the open field over the 
railroad and fence, up a gentle slope, across the crest, down into the 
enemy's line, when two field batteries of four guns each opened 
a terrific cannonade. The enemy were driven from two pieces 
at the point of the bayonet, our men literally running them 
down. 1 ' At that moment, two rebel regiments lying behind the 
batteries opened a blazing fire of musketry, while a large gun 
battery at the right opened an enfilading fire along the Sixth, 
throwing its grape and canister about them until " the corn 
fell as if by an invisible reaper." The bugler sounded the "lie 
down," until the observations of the locality were made and the 
" retreat " sounded. In steady order the men fell back as they 
had advanced — in splendid line, though under the steady fire of 
three regiments and seven cannon, half the latter enfilading the 
line. " Few of the men," says Corse, " who had so gallantly 
charged the battery, got back." Capt. Minton and Lieut. Rarick 
were both wounded. It had been a notable reconnoissance, and 
was of extreme use to the army. In the affair the Sixth Iowa 
lost 28 men, though during the seige its loss was about TO. It 
was such fighting that shortly put a star on the shoulder of Col. 
Corse. 

Maj. Miller, Adjt. Ennis, Captains Minton and Bashore, with 
Lieut. Holmes, were all honorably mentioned in Corse's report. 
il In short," said he, " there is no officer of my command, but that 
has in some way rendered himself worthy of honorable mention 
daring our advance on Jackson." " The valor of your noble 
regiment," says Smith, the division commander, " has been 
conspicuous." 

During this little siege of Jackson, the Third Iowa infantry, 
led then by Maj. G. W. Crosley, suffered in a conflict pronounced 
by participants the severest in its history. At nine o'clock on 



234 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the morning of the 12th of July, Gen. Lauman, in accordance 
with orders of Gen. Ord, who commanded at the right, proceeded 
to move his division farther to the front, to be in line with 
Hovey on his left. 

Pugh's brigade — the Third Iowa, Forty-first, Twenty-eighth 
and Fifty-third Illinois and Fifth Ohio battery, were ordered to 
cross over the New Orleans and Jackson railroad south of the 
city, thus bringing the right nearer Pearl river. They were a 
mile from the rebel works, but were at once ordered to advance, 
dressing the troops up to Hovey's line on their left. In half an 
hour they came under the rebel fire. Their own battery opened, 
but was instantly answered by the guns from the forts. Gen. 
Lauman came up at the end of the first half mile, looked the 
situation over, and ordered the men to still advance. The rebel 
pickets and their reserves were driven in, and the advancing line 
moved up in full view of the rebel forts three hundred yards 
away. The order was "still to advance, 1 ' when a terrible fire 
from three rebel brigades and twelve pieces of artillery was 
opened on them. 

No one in the line seemed to understand the reasons for such 
a move. All Sherman's army was there at hand. Was one 
small brigade to assault the works alone? There was no demon- 
stration right or left — no supports were in sight. Every man in 
that line felt that he was about to be slaughtered — and for no 
purpose. " Forward" was still the order, and the brave men 
advanced under the volleys of grape, canister and musketry. 

Steadily forward they went on over the open field — climbed 
through and over the abatis, only to meet a merciless fire. 
Within seventy-five yards of the fort, the line halts and suffers 
the converging fire of cannon and musketry for twenty min- 
utes — an eternity in such a place. At last, they fall back. 
Their flag and their banner they have brought with them — 
their dead and wounded are lel't in a scorching sun, on the hot 
battle field. No appeal by flag of truce could induce the enemy 
to permit our men to care for their hero comrades tying there 
bleeding and perishing for thirst in that burning sun. Almost 
every other man of the 241 of the Third Iowa who entered that 



IOWA AT VICKSBURG. 235 

charge, was lost. Capt. J. L. Ruckman was killed, as were also 
Lieutenants E. W. Hall, Joseph Ruckman and A. H. McMur- 
trie. Col. Brown, Lieutenants C. L. Anderson, Jacob Aber- 
nethy and Capt. Simon G. Geary were all wounded. Lieut. Earle 
was taken prisoner. The other regiments suffered equally. 

It was the Third Iowa infantry's last battle. The unwar- 
ranted and uncalled for assault looked like a massacre of brave 
men. The blame of the tragedy was placed upon Gen. Lauman. 
He was at once relieved of his command, and his military career 
ended. But he was never permitted an opportunity of explana- 
tion or justification. He asserted that he had only obeyed the 
verbal orders of Gen. Ord. The truth, nearer than this, probably 
never will be known. That brave men's lives were lost without 
a purpose, never was doubted.* 

Jackson fell for the second time. Johnston's army was scat- 
tered into the interior of the South, while the victorious sol- 
diers of Generals Grant and Sherman returned to Vicksburg to 
enjoy their honors. 

*Gen._ George A. Stone, of Iowa, witnessed this terrible assault, and 
spoke with Lauman just before it was made. Lauman assured him that he 
was obeying the orders of his commander and would make the assault, cost 
what it might. Stone felt confident that Lauman, wisely or not, was acting 
under positive orders. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BATTLE OF HELENA. 
July 4, 1863. 

The 4th of July, 1863, was a great battle day. Vicksburg, 
Gettysburg, Helena, were victories that told to the world that the 
beginning of the end of the war had come. The importance of 
the battle of Helena was somewhat obscured by the glory of the 
other great victories on the same day. Nevertheless, it was a 
battle gallantly fought by western soldiers against great odds, 
and, as a victory, was important and complete. 

Helena is a town in Arkansas, on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi river, and about one hundred miles below Memphis. It 
had been occupied by the union troops ever since the arrival of 
Gen. Curtis, in July of 1862, and was well fortified by a line of 
four forts occupying prominent hills of the high ridge just west 
of the town. Inside of this line of works, and nearer town, 
stood a formidable redoubt known as Fort Curtis.* The outer 
forts were known as A, B, C, and D, running from north to 
southwest. The situation was well adapted for defense, as the 
ridges where the forts stood were high, rough, and broken by 
nearly impassable ravines. The roads leading into town over 
these ridges were blockaded by fallen timber. Altogether, 
Helena was a bad place to attack, but the fact did not seem to 
be very well known by the rebel commander in Arkansas. 

While the siege of Vicksburg was going on, it occurred to the 
rebel authorities at Richmond that a grand diversion could be 
made by the troops in Arkansas, and hints were given accord- 
ingly. " I believe I can take Helena — please let me do it," 

*The outer forts wer<) open at the rear and Fort Curtis commanded them 
all. 

(236) 



BATTLE OF HELENA. 237 

telegraphed Lt. Gen. Holmes from Little Rock to his superior 
commander, Kirby Smith, on the 15th of June, 1862. Kirby 
Smith kindly said "yes" to the ardent request, "most certainly, 
do it," and by the evening of the 3d of July, Gen. Holmes stood 
in front of the ridge and the forts with some 10,000 men. He 
had not heard of what was going on at Vicksburg, and, evidently, 
he had not heard of what was going on right in front of 
him, and behind the forts on the hills. 

Midnight saw great commotion in the camps at Helena. There 
were not many troops there — a trifle over 4,000 only, but the 
little command was rather glad that daylight would probably 
bring on a battle. Among those soldiers were three regiments 
from Iowa — the Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third and Thirty-sixth 
infantry, and the Third battery, all waiting there in the dark- 
ness to add a new leaf to the chaplet of Iowa's military glory. 
Maj.-Gen. B. M. Prentiss was in command of the post of Helena, 
but the division of troops was that of Brig.-Gen. Salomon. The 
Iowa troops were brigaded together, with them the Thirty-third 
Missouri, and commanded by Col. Samuel A. Rice, one of the 
state's best soldiers and an able man, beloved by his troops as by 
his people at home. His assistant adjutant general was John F. 
Lacey, then a rising young officer of unusual merit. As Col. 
Rice was commanding the brigade, his own regiment, the 
Thirty-third, was led into the fight by Lt.-Col. Cyrus H. 
Mackey. Col. Thos. H. Benton, Jr., led the Twenty-ninth Iowa, 
and Col. C. W. Kittredge the Thirty-sixth. The Iowa battery, 
doing splendid service, was commanded by Lieut. M. C. Wright. 

Long before daylight of July 4th, the troops were in positions 
assigned them. The Rebels had intended to surprise Helena and 
capture it at daylight. Some delay in the march had occurred, 
and the surprise part failed, as Gen. Prentiss was aware of the 
whole movement. The Thirty-third Missouri regiment was 
distributed among the four outer forts to man the guns, with a 
part of it in reserve as sharpshooters. The Thirty-third Iowa 
was placed in the trenches on the left, flanking and defending 
Batteries C and D, while a part of the Thirty-sixth was in the 
rifle pits at Battery A on the right. The Twenty-ninth Iowa, 



238 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

with a reserve from the Thirty-sixth, was sent in front of 
battery A, with its line reaching to the Sterling road. 

Just as day was breaking, a rebel column came with a yell 
against batteries C and D. Regiment after regiment was 
hurled on, only to be met by an appalling fire from the well 
defended forts and rifle pits. Still they came, and in closed 
column, fighting desperately. By overwhelming numbers, 
regardless of loss, they succeed in forcing back our lines at the 
left, and Battery C for a short time is in their hands. So, too, are 
the rifle pits at Battery D. It is a short time only, for the 
guns from four forts, including Curtis's, hurl a terrific fire of 
grape and canister into their ranks, while the rallied men of 
the Thirty-third Iowa and the Thirty-third Missouri drive them 
back with blazing musketry. The fort is again ours, and with 
it many prisoners, while the rough ground and the tangled 
abatis are full of dead and dying Rebels. 

While this was going on in the center, a less determined con- 
test raged at the right, near Batteries A and B, where the 
rebel Gen. Marmaduke was trying to force his way in. It was 
here that the Twenty-ninth and Thirty-sixth Iowa, with the 
Third Iowa battery, won their first laurels in battle. '' They 
were cool and brave/' said Col. Rice, " and behaved in a manner 
worthy of all commendation.' 1 They were confronted by four 
regiments of infantry, a brigade of cavalry, and batteries. So 
close were the assaulting columns, the voices of their officers 
could be heard as they rallied their men to the front. It was 
all in vain. Gren. Holmes soon saw that his troops were being 
massacred uselessly. His assaulting columns at the union right 
had no success at all. Price and Fagan on the left had been 
driven from their captured positions with great loss. Price, 
when he forced his troops into Battery C, hoped to take Battery 
D from the rear, and then enter the town. But all had failed. 
His loss was very severe. The hills and the ravines were full of 
his dead and wounded. So was it with the column uuder Gen. 
Fagan in the ditches, at Battery D. His dead and wounded lay 
everywhere. " Price's charge, with his Missourians," said Staff 
Officer John F. Lacey, who witnessed it all from a height at Bat- 




GENERAL SAMUEL A. RICE. 



BATTLE OF HELENA. 239 

tery A, " was a terrific one. It was gallantry itself, and for a 
little time it looked as if all were lost." It was one of the 
great sights of war — u to one who has no friend or brother there." 
Price's army was good at charging when the pinch came, just 
as it was good on the retreat, and a view of a column of several 
thousand of his men storming a position under a blaze of mus- 
ketry and artillery, was a rare but terrible sight.* 

When Price took Battery C in that storm of bullets, swarms 
of his men, without apparent command or order of line, moved to 
the assault of Fort Curtis. Five 24-pounder siege guns, a 32- 
pounder columbiad in Fort Curtis, a roar of musketry from ral- 
lied infantry and the big cannon balls from the gunboat 
" Tyler" down at the river, soon sent the attackers to right-about. 
These were things Gen. Holmes had not counted on — and they 
were very dangerous things. He had apparently never heard 
of Fort Curtis till that moment, and did not know that the 
" Tyler " was so uncomfortably near in the river. 

The advance company that charged up and hurled the Rebels 
out of Battery C was led by Capt. John Baugh of Oskaloosa. 
Capt. Yerger of Sigourney and his company also charged in 
driving the Rebels from the captured guns which they had 
not been able to use — they having been spiked as our line fell 
back.f 

An incident of great heroism was the capture of five Rebels by 
Sergt. Moore, Co. G, Thirty-third Iowa. At one point of the 
battle he found himself alone, at the front, and menaced by five 
of the enemy. Springing behind a stump, he brought his rifle 
to bear on one of them, and demanded the surrender of all. The 
whole squad wilted, and were marched back by the sergeant as 
prisoners of war. 

There was but one thing left for Lt.-Gen. Holmes to do, and 
he did it. His bugle sounded the quick retreat, and his brigades, 

*At the battle of Corinth, it was the fortune of the writer to witness a 
similar charge by this same general and with some of these same troops. 
The result was as disastrous to the brave men there as at Helena. 

tThis retaking of Battery C was one of the heroic incidents not mentioned 
in the reports, though vouched for by men like W. R. Cowan of the Thirty- 
third, who was present and himself wounded in the charge. 



240 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

what was left of them, inarched back to Little Rock. As Geu . 
Holmes rode along the dusty roads at the head of his shattered 
columns on that retreat, he must sometimes have thought of 
that June telegram and wished that lie had not asked Smith to 
4i please let him take Helena." The conflict ended that day an 
hour before noon, but Holmes had lost over 1,500 of his com- 
mand and had suffered a bad defeat. The battle had been under- 
taken as a diversion in favor of Pembertton at Vicksburg, but 
at the very moment when Holmes's regiments were being 
slaughtered on the hills and among the ravines of Helena, Pem- 
berton's army was surrendering its arms to Gen. Grant. 

The cannonading that tore Holmes's little army to fragments 
that forenoon was so severe as to be heard beyond Little Rock, a 
hundred miles away. All the union, troops behaved with great 
gallantry; notably so the Thirty-third Missouri and the Thirty- 
third Iowa. The latter regiment captured two battle flags and 
as many prisoners as it had men in action. The different 
companies of this regiment were much separated in the fight, 
and were hurried about from one point of danger to another 
under a hard fire. Lt.-Col. Mackey was conspicuously able for 
his task. His regiment lost 25 men killed, 52 wounded and 17 
prisoners. Most of the time the enemy in his front numbered 
three to his one. Maj. H. D. Gibson, Captains J. P. Yerger, 
John Lofland and L. W. Whipple were complimented for gal- 
lantry, as was Lieut. Cheney Prouty. Lieut. Sharman, too, who 
had been badly wounded, received notice for especial gallantry. 

Col. Rice, on whose command fell the brunt of the battle, and 
who was himself cool and efficient, was quick to recognize the 
ability and bravery of his fellow officers and men. To Colonels 
Benton and Kittredge he gave special compliments for effi- 
ciency and bravery, as also to Lieutenant Colonels Mackey, Pat- 
terson and Heath, with Majors Gibson, Van Beck and Shoe- 
maker. His competent A. A. A. General, John F. Lacey, was 
also mentioned in reports. Neither did he forget honorable 
mention of the brave men of Kansas, Indiana and Missouri who 
stood beside his own brigade and by gallant fighting beat off the 
attacking columns. 



BATTLE OF HELENA. 241 

The men of the Twenty-ninth Iowa were under a severe fire 
for more than five hours, and, says Col. Benton, " no flinching 
or wavering was seen on that day." Some of Benton's men rose 
from sick beds to shoulder their muskets and help defend the 
town. The regiment lost 13 killed and 18 wounded. 

Col. Kittredge, in a laconic report of a few lines as to the 
Thirty-sixth Iowa on that day, says, " every officer and man did 
his duty," while Chaplain Hare and Quartermaster Morrill 
were thanked for valuable services. They were the only field 
officers beside the colonel present, the others being sick. The 
regiment lost but one man killed and a few missing. 

The Iowa battery was of great service in the battle, and its 
commander, Lieut. Wright, spoke in warm terms of the courage 
and efficiency of Lieut. Lyon and Sergeants House and Dengle, 
and Corp. Folsom. 

In every sense the battle of Helena had been a gallant fight; 
the defenders vieing with each other in acts of heroism, while 
the Rebels attacked with that desperation for which their charges 
were famous. It was, too, the last fighting for the possession 
of the Mississippi river. 

STERLING FARM. 

A few weeks after the fall of Vicksburg and the defense of 
Helena, a mishap occurred to one of the Iowa regiments con- 
cerning which the chroniclers have had little to say. Gen. Herron, 
with a division of troops, was operating for the defense of the 
Mississippi river in the neighborhood of Morganzia, Louisiana. 
The troops usually on outpost duty were much scattered and 
liable to be overpowered. On Sept. 12th, the Nineteenth Iowa, 
the Twenty-sixth Indiana, and two pieces of artillery, all under 
command of Lt.-Col. Leake of the Twentieth Iowa, were sent 
out in the performance of heavy picket duty . There was daily 
skirmishing with the enemy either along the banks of the Atch- 
afalaya or between there and the Mississippi. This force took 
Sterling Farm, seven miles back from the transports, for head- 
quarters. 

On Sept. 29th the enemy in large force attacked the little 
I. W. T.— 16 



242 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

brigade of Lt.-Col. Leake in front, flank and rear. They met 
with a volley which caused them to recoil, but being in over- 
whelming numbers, they bore down our gallant force and 
captured it entire. Many of the men, however, refused to 
surrender until their guns were forcibly taken from them by 
the Rebels. A history of the Nineteenth Iowa, by J. I. Dungan, 
one of its members, and one of this captured force, describes the 
command as in a state of constant vigilance, prepared to spring 
to arms at a moment's notice, and with pickets and guards 
watching the outposts at as many points as their small numbers 
permitted. Lt.-Col. Leake was aware of the critical position 
he occupied, and did the most a soldier could do to hold it. The 
length of time that our troops held the Rebels in check is given 
as two hours and ten minutes — our force being about 500 — the 
rebel force 5,000. The Nineteenth Iowa was commanded by Capt. 
Wm. Adams, Co. E, Maj. Bruce having been ordered shortly 
before to New Orleans. Maj. Brace's report gives 260 as the 
number engaged in the action. Fortunately, about two-thirds 
of the regiment, from various causes, had been prevented from 
joining with this force at Sterling Farm, and thus escaped 
capture. There were two officers and eight enlisted men killed, 
one officer and sixteen enlisted men wounded, and eleven officers 
and two hundred and three enlisted men captured. Lieuts. Kent 
and Roberts were among the killed, and Capt. Taylor mortally 
wounded. The Rebels lost 50 killed and many more wounded. 
Our captured were carried to Texas and kept in the prison 
camp at Tyler, undergoing as much hardship and cruelty as fell 
to the lot of any of our prisoners in the South. After about ten 
months of this experience they were exchanged, rejoining their 
regiment at New Orleans, tattered, emaciated and suffering. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SOME MINOR ENGAGEMENTS. 
MilliJcen''s Bend — Springfield — Hartsville. 



MILLIKEN'S BEND. 
June 5, 1863. 

During the siege of Vicksburg, and shortly before the sur- 
render of that stronghold, the rebel authorities tried by various 
means to distract Grant's attention, and, if possible, to mend 
their desperate fortunes. One of these means was to be the 
capture and destruction of some of the garrisons along the 
Mississippi river and in GrariVs rear. 

The attempt on Helena and its utter failure are narrated 
elsewhere. By some means the Rebels learned that the little 
post at Milliken's Bend, almost in sight of Vicksburg, had been 
nearly denuded of troops, and was garrisoned by only a few hun- 
dred negroes. Here was an opportunity, not only to capture a 
weak garrison, but to massacre a lot of inoffensive black men — 
and with a cry of "no quarter to the d — niggers or to their 
white officers," they marched on the position. 

It was the 5th of June, 1863, that after some skirmishing a 
few miles in advance, the rebel force, 3,000 strong, led by Gen. 
Henry McCullough, approached close to the little union line. 
Gen. E. S. Dennis, who commanded the garrison of the post, had 
not over 800 troops, all colored, and unused to arms. The Rebels, 
however, did not attack that evening, and a passing steamer car- 
ried to the union officers at Young's Point the news of the crit- 
ical situation. Immediately, the Twenty-third Iowa, under 
Lt.-Col. Glasgow, was put on a transport and hurried to Milli- 
ken's Bend. They were just in the nick of time to take part 
in one of the most ferocious engagements of the war. The reg- 

(243) 



2ii IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

iment remained over night on the steamer, and daylight revealed 
to their astonished eyes long lines of Rebels dashing for the 
breastworks and yelling "No quarter." Quickly as possible, 
Col. Glasgow got his men off the boat, and they, too, ran for the 
breastworks, but for the river side of them. These defenses 
were simply the high levee of the river, built some distance 
back, but well suited for the purpose. 

Over this wall of defense tbe battle raged. Men fought with 
their bayonets and their clubbed guns, and the officers with their 
swords. There were instances of men bayoneting each other to 
the very death on top of the levee, and of men's brains being 
beaten out with the butts of each other's muskets. There was 
nowhere in the war such a hand to hand conflict. Each realized 
that it was to be success or massacre. The negroes, seeing how 
merciless was their foe, showed no mercy themselves. White 
and black indiscriminately and without order, fought for dear 
life. Once, the Rebels gained the inside of the breastworks, 
where the hand to hand contest continued — the Rebels appar- 
ently gaining ground. A little more success, and the position 
would be lost and the garrison massacred, as at Fort Pillow. No 
Indians of the wild West ever fought with more ferocity and 
more determination to end the fight with a massacre, than did 
these exasperated Rebels, filled with rage at seeing their former 
slaves in arms. It was a combat for the extermination of one 
command or the other, and the blacks and their brave white 
supporters were being overpowered and driven under the banks 
of the river. 

Utter destruction seemed inevitable, when, at the critical 
moment, two union gunboats, whose commanders had been fore- 
warned, steamed up to the banks, and with shot and shell rid- 
dled the rebel ranks and drove them back over the levee. There 
again they rallied, but so, too, did the union line. The u no 
quarter" attack that followed was quickly repulsed with slaugh- 
ter, and the discomfited and defeated Rebels took their black 
flag and leaving their dead, hastened to the woods. They had 
learned a fearful lesson, and that was that bayonets and bullets 
were as dangerous in the hands of the ex-slave as in the hands 



DEFENSE OF SPRINGFIELD. 245 

of a barbarous master. The North, too, learned something. It 
was that the President's policy of arming the freed men was a 
wise policy, and a gain to the nation. Whether the ex-slaves 
could fight or not, was no longer a question. 

The cry of " no quarter '" to black men fighting their coun- 
try's battles, came near proving on this occasion a most disastrous 
one, for it was a knife with two edges. Not less than 500 of 
the men crying " no quarter " on that field were killed or badly 
wounded. The union loss, too, was large. Out of only 110 
men engaged of the Twenty-third Iowa, at least 50 were killed 
and wounded.* Capt. John C. Brown, a good man and an 
excellent officer, was killed, as was Lieut. Wm. H. Downs. Thomas 
Free, an Iowa man, then adjutant of one of the colored regi- 
ments, was conspicuous for his gallantry. Col. Glasgow won 
the warmest encomiums from the commanding officer in the 
battle, and Gen. Grant expressed his great satisfaction with the 
courage of the colored troops and the splendid defense of the post. 

It has been said that Gen. Hugh T. Reid, of Iowa, more than 
any other officer in the service, had urged on the government the 
employment of colored troops, and had practically tested their 
fitness by using them in conflicts at Lake Providence, where he 
was a commander. His loyal heart must have been overjoyed 
at this new justification of his faith in the patriotism and cour- 
age of the colored people. In a battle where the odds were as 
three to one, they had resisted one of the fiercest attacks of the 
war. It was the commencement of a new chapter in the history 
of their race. 

DEFENSE OF SPRINGFIELD. 

Jan. 8, 1863. 

There were two engagements in which Iowa troops took an 
heroic part, and concerning which history has said but little. 

In the midwinter of 1862-3, and not long after the battle of 
Prairie Grove, an army of some 5,000 Rebels entered Missouri 

*A number of officers of the Twenty-third were wounded, but there is no 
report of them in the books of the adjutant general. The number of the 
Twenty-third engaged has been stated at from 110 to 160. Whatever the 
number, certain it is that Glasgow and his men were very heroic. 



246 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

and marched on the town of Springfield. They were led by 
Gen. Marmaduke, who had been cunning enough to pass the 
flank of the main union army, with the hope that by quick 
marching and quick, brave fighting, he could destroy Springfield 
and evade successful pursuit. Springfield was the union base 
of supplies, and was of great importance to the union army in 
many ways. What Chattanooga was to Sherman's army at 
Atlanta, that Springfield was to the union army under Blunt. 
It was held by Gen. Brown of Missouri, with a small garrison 
composed of Mississippi militia, a few hundred hospital convales- 
cents and the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry. Col. Crabb of the 
Nineteenth Iowa, detached, was in immediate command of the 
post. These, with a few union men of the town who took arms, 
did not number, all told, over 1,500 for duty, a part of the Eight- 
eenth Iowa being on outpost service. 

On the evening of January 7, 1863, Gen. brown's scouts 
brought him word that the rebel army was rapidly approaching 
the town. That night was spent by the little union force in 
preparing for battle. All the soldiers were mustered, and the 
half sick men of the hospital, formed into the " Quinine brig- 
ade, 1 ' took their guns and went to the front. 

At ten o'clock of the 8th, the rebel army, in battle array, were 
seen three miles outside of the rude intrenchments of the town. 
They seemed to have an abundance of cavalry on either wing, 
and some artillery in the center. By noon, the skirmishers of 
the union line were all driven in, and by one the engagement 
had grown into a battle. Some of the Missouri militia cavalry 
soon made a handsome charge on the advancing line, but aside 
from inflicting some injury, scarcely checked it. Some union 
guns in breastwork No. 4, poured a warm fire into the Rebels* 
which at times checked their ardor and pushed them back. 

By two o'clock, the Rebels massed their forces several lines 
deep and made a determined effort on the union right and cen- 
ter. It was then that Capt. Landis of the Eigteenth Iowa, with a 
piece of artillery, was pushed forward into an exposed and dan- 
gerous position at the right. Three companies of the Eight- 
eenth Iowa under Captains Van Meter, Blue and Stonaker, were 



DEFENSE OF SPRINGFIELD. 247 

sent along as supports. By a bold dash, with overwhelming 
numbers, the Rebels succeeded in capturing the gun, but not till 
Captains Blue, Van Meter and Landis were wounded — the two 
former mortally. At their sides fell many of their brave 
comrades. At the same moment the Rebels got possession 
of a strong stockaded building south of and near to the town, 
and from this vantage point poured a heavy fire into the union 
line. In another hour Brown's forces were being heavily pressed, 
and the position seemed extremely critical. Then the " Quinine 
brigade, 1 ' led by Col. Crabb, rushed to the front. They were real 
soldiers, if they were sick ones. In an hour's fighting they 
drove the enemy back on their left center, but an immediate and 
very nearly successful assault by the Rebels followed at the right. 
Some of the militia were giving way. Gen. Brown hurried to 
their front to re-form them, but was shot from his horse in the 
endeavor. It was now four o'clock, and Col. Crabb assumed the 
command. Again the battle was resumed at the center, and for 
another hour continued with varying results. Once more some 
of the militia faltered and for a time all seemed lost, when 
others, also militia, charged for the lost ground with a cheer. 
At the same time Lt.-Col. Cook, with the remaining companies 
of the Eighteenth Iowa, who had hurried from outpost duty to 
the scene, came up, and they, too, charged the rebel center with 
a shout, and drove it rearwards. Darkness soon ended the 
contest, and that night the defeated rebel army withdrew. Of 
less than 200 men engaged of the Eighteenth Iowa, 56 had been 
killed or wounded. 

This handful of brave men and the sturdy, heroic militia of 
Missouri, had saved Springfield with its enormous stores, and it 
had saved a disaster to the union army. History may heed it 
little or heed it much, but considering the length of the battle 
and the forces engaged, there was not better fighting at Bunker 
Hill. 



248 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

THE BATTLE OF HARTSVILLE. 
Dec. 11, 1862. 

Gen. Brown, on hearing of the advance of the rebel army on 
Springfield, had sent to Gen. Fitz Henry Warren at Houston for 
help. Houston was eighty miles away, but Warren, who was 
himself ill at the time, immediately sent a column under Col. 
Merrill of the Twenty-first Iowa toward Springfield. Merrill's 
little force scarcely counted a thousand men, all told. They 
were a part of his own Twenty-first Iowa under the brave 
Lt.-Col. Dunlap, a detachment of the Ninety-ninth Illinois, 
a part of the Third Missouri, and the Third Iowa cavalry, with a 
couple of pieces of artillery. 

The battle of Springfield, unknown to Warren, was fought 
and won even before Merrill's column started, and the chagrined 
rebel army had marched past Springfield in the general direc- 
tion of Houston, hoping for better luck next time. Merrill, too, 
was on the move, but in the opposite direction, and hurrying 
for Springfield to aid Gen. Brown and Col. Crabb. 

On the night of January 10th, Merrill's little column camped 
in the woods only one mile away from the camps of the rebel 
army. The fact was not known till morning, when large rebel 
forces were discovered to be coming from the direction of Spring- 
field. This escape of Merrill's command from surprise, was at a 
little creek eight miles west of the village of Hartsville. Some 
severe skirmishing now took place, when the Rebels moved off the 
field and Merrrill's column started for Hartsville. On approaching 
the village, he discovered the enemy in his path, occupying the 
place, and possibly 5,000 strong. Merrill might have run. 
With such a disparity of forces there would have been abund- 
ant excuse for instant retreat. Merrill and his men, however, 
had started out to fight, and here, apparently, was a good fight- 
ing chance. The battle line was at once formed with the Ninety- 
ninth Illinois at the right, a little artillery in the center and the 
detachment of the Twenty-first Iowa and the cavalry to the left. 
The position was a good one, somewhat protected by a screen of 
low, dense brush. The enemy occupied the village and an open 



BATTLE OF HARTSVILLE. 249 

field at Merrill's front, where his movements were easily watched. 
It was about noon. The enemy opened the affair with a little 
artillery firing, and then with 700 cavalry charged on Merrill's 
line. Quietly his men lay on the ground till the coming horse- 
men were in close range, when at the order, they gave them a 
deliberate, but fierce blast of musketry that sent them reeling 
from their horses. The little battery at MerrhTs center had 
also played a part in the repulse, and the rebel line fell back in 
utter confusion. Then came numerous attacks of rebel infan- 
try, but they were poorly made and promptly repulsed. Nearly 
all the afternoon the rebel assaults continued, only to be defeated. 

At three o'clock, Merrill's ammunition failing, the order was 
given to fall back on the road to Lebanon. Had Merrill only 
known it, the Rebels, too, at that very moment were preparing 
to retreat. For some reason, Lt.-Col. Dunlap did not receive the 
order to fall back, but bravely continued his fighting on the 
left, himself wounded and many of his men hors de combat. 
His position was naturally very strong, and two or three charges 
made by the Rebels as parting salutes, were easily repelled. 

Darkness found both armies retreating, but in opposite direc- 
tions. The Rebels, however, had been fairly whipped before 
dark, and their losses had been great in officers and men. One 
rebel general and several colonels and other field officers were 
killed or wounded. Not less than 300 of their army were lost. 
Merrill's little force had inflicted a severe drubbing on the enemy, 
whether he staid to hold a barren field or not. His total loss had 
been about 75 in killed and wounded. Both Merrill and Dunlap, 
together with their brave men, received the warmest praise from 
Gen. Warren for the victory at Hartsville, where they had 
defeated a foe whose numbers were five times their own. An 
officer, Capt. Black, leading the Third Missouri cavalry detach- 
ment, had thirteen bullet holes in his coat, attesting to the 
severity of the engagement on his part of the line. Merrill's 
prudence, firmness and good disposition of his forces in the 
battle, were especially commended by the commanding general, 
and certain it is that not often during the war did a small com- 
mand so heroically battle against numbers so superior. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 



THE STORMING OF MISSIONARY RIDGE. 
November 24-25, 1863. 

"I will try Missionary Ridge to-morrow morning, November 
24th, at da} T light; no cause on earth will induce me to ask for 
longer delay." So wrote Sherman to Grant on the evening of 
November 23d, 1863. A little delay had already occurred by 
high water preventing the advance of one or two of Sherman's 
divisions, but now, all were about up and ready. Sherman's 
Fifteenth army corps, including many of the Iowa regiments, had 
already made a forced march of 330 miles from Memphis, to be 
there in time for the battle. 

At Chattanooga, as elsewhere, Iowa soldiers were to figure 
conspicuously. Nine Iowa regiments were at the battle, and the 
Fifth, Sixth, Tenth and the Seventeeth regiments especially, were 
todo some very hard fighting. The Fifth and Tenth were brigaded, 
together with others, under Gen. C. L. Matthies of Burlington. 
Matthies first went into the service as a gallant captain of the 
First regiment at Wilson's creek, then became colonel of the 
Fifth and was made a brigadier for splendid service at Iuka. 
John E. Smith led the division. The Sixth regiment, led by 
Lt.-Col. Miller, was in Corse's Second brigade of the Fourth 
division, led by Hugh Ewing. John M. Corse was also of Bur- 
lington, and one of the state's bravest and most distinguished 
generals. He entered the service as major of the Sixth, afterward 
was made its colonel, and received his commission of brigadier 
general for gallantry. The Seventeenth regiment was in the 
Second brigade, Raum's, of Smith's division, and was led by its 
its own Colonel, Clark R. Wever. 

(250) 



IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 251 

Midnight of the 23d of November found all these Iowa regi- 
ments with the troops under Sherman, waiting the signal to 
cross the Tennessee river at the left of Grant's army, and assault 
Missionary Ridge. Many other Iowa regiments, the Fourth, 
Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth and Thirty- 
first, were at the same time with Hooker's army scaling the 
heights of Lookout Mountain on the right. They were in the 
division of Osterhaus. 

On that evening of the 23d of November, Sherman's whole 
army corps, including his Iowa regiments, lay in bivouac and in 
a concealed position close to the Tennessee river. Over on the 
opposite bank stood the pickets of the enemy, calling to and 
chaffing our own occasionally across the water. They little 
dreamed that 20,000 men lay there in the dark wood and brush, 
only waiting the midnight signal to cross over and attack. That 
night on the Tennessee was one of the memorable occasions of 
the whole war. All the soldiers of that army corps knew that 
something was about to happen. There was an ominous silence 
in the air, and officers moved about mysteriously, saying but 
little of the unusual danger about to be encountered. To cross 
a river in the face of an enemy at any time is hazardous, but to 
attempt rowing an army over a broad, rapid stream in rude boats, in 
the darkness of midnight, and with a strong and victorious army 
on the opposite shore, is a hazard even veterans contemplate with 
great misgivings. Many a pulse beat fast that night when at two 
o'clock the low signal came and the soldiers stepped noiselessly into 
the waiting pontoons. With living freight, the rude square boats 
were loaded to the water's edge. Each contained from twenty 
to thirty soldiers who sat in the darkness holding their trusted 
rifles on their knees, in momentary expectation of a blast of 
musketry or a cannon ball that might sink them to the bottom 
of the river. They were not aware that some of their comrades 
that night had silently crossed the river farther up, and taken 
the rebel pickets by surprise. That some of these same pickets 
had escaped, however, was well known to Sherman, and, that they 
would raise the alarm at rebel headquarters in half an hour, was 
altogether probable. The alarm, if given, came too late to Gen. 



252 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Bragg, for the boats landed without the loss of a man, and day- 
light found whole brigades, some 8,000 men of Sherman's corps, 
on solid ground, and busy as beavers throwing up intrenchments. 
Never in the world were spades and shovels handled more rapidly 
than by Sherman's men that morning on the Tennessee river. 
Long before noon of the 24th, the pontoon bridge was down, 
and the rest of the left wing of the army, with its artillery, was 
crossing over. 

Sherman's soldiers had successfully taken the river, but now 
they were called upon to assault a mountain — and that moun- 
tain bristling with the bayonets of the enemy and marked all 
over with rifle pits and breastworks for batteries. A stronger 
position than Bragg occupied along the crest of Missionary 
Ridge, and over the rugged top of Lookout Mountain, protected 
as both were by a rapid river, could not easily be conceived. 
His army, too, was flushed with recent victory. 

All the day of the 24th was spent by the troops of Sherman 
skirmishing and maneuvering for position, and by Hooker in 
advancing up Lookout Mountain. That night, whole regiments 
stood on picket in the cold, wet woods, without fire and with 
short rations. The teams of the army had no feed at all, and 
were fairly dying of hunger. 

At last, at the end of that long, chilly, uncomfortable and 
expectant night, daylight came. It brought only the sullen and 
desultory firing from batteries half secreted along the jagged 
spurs of Missionary Ridge, or the spurting musketry of skirmish- 
ers, as the lines at times approached too near together. All the 
night Sherman's pickets had watched the rockets of the enemy 
on Lookout Mountain and heard the roar of Hooker's cannon as 
they shot their flames out through the fog and clouds. 

The slope of Lookout Mountain had been taken by Hooker's 
soldiers. Thomas, with his army of the Cumberland, had 
advanced, on the 23d, a mile in front of Fort Wood, at the union 
center, fighting a severe battle for the enemy's outer intrench- 
ments, while parts of Sherman's army were now up to and 
across the western point at the end of Missionary Ridge. Grant 
now had his forces well in hand, and advanced ready for the battle. 



IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 



253 



CHATTANOOGA. 

REFERENCES. 



Sherman's first position, Oct. 23, 1863. 

Hooker's Corps at Lookout Mt., Not. 24. 

Sherman's Corps morning, Nov. 24. 

Sherman's Corps evening, Nov. 24. 



Gen. Grant's flead-Quar., 
Gen. " 
Gen. " 
Rebel Retreat. 



Hot. 23-24.- «^ 
Nov. 25. J? 
Nov. 26. jf- 
Nov. 25. _,♦-►-*-. 

// 




254 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

At Washington, the President anxiously sat at the telegraph 
wire, waiting to hear the result. 

"That morning, 1 ' says Gen. Grant, "opened clear and bright, 
and the whole field was in full view from the top of Orchard 
Knob (where he stood during the battle), and remained so all 
day. 1 ' What a sight that vast army marching into the battle 
must have been! What profound emotions must have stirred 
the breast of him who stood there viewing that scene and, for 
the moment, holding in his hand the lives of thousands of 
human beings! Whatever his emotions may have been, Grant 
was silent. 

At daylight, or a little after, the bugle had sounded. Sher- 
man's soldiers were to move first to the attack, and, as the sun 
rose through the hill gaps, brave Corse of Iowa, and Loomis of 
Illinois, and Morgan L. Smith advanced to the conflict at Sher- 
man's right center. Between the hills and woods held by Sher- 
man, and Missionary Ridge proper, a low depression or valley 
ran. Across this, the troops charged and assaulted the steep, 
wooded and intrenched position of the enemy. The Sixth Iowa, 
led by Lt.-Col. Miller, was with Corse. It held the center posi- 
tion, and in the terrific fighting that ensued for the possession of 
the hills, none were more desperately engaged than they. Sixty- 
five of its officers and men were killed or wounded. The first 
hill was taken by Corse, and then with additional troops he 
assaulted the main position. For nearly two hours the hard 
fight lasted at this point, Corse gaining and losing ground, but 
still hanging like grim death to the first hill. " At ten o'clock," 
says Sherman, " the fight raged furiously," and in its midst the 
brave Corse was severely wounded and borne to the rear. Col. 
Walcutt took his place, and the terrific assaults went on. 

In the meantime, Morgan L. Smith's soldiers had gained 
ground on the left spurs of the ridge, and the men of Loomis's 
brigade had fought close up to the ridge and abreast of Tunnel 
Hill, where the railroad ran through the mountain. At 2 p. m., 
John E. Smith's division, including among other troops, the 
Fifth, Tenth and Seventeenth Iowa regiments, was pushed up 
to where Loomis's men were fighting against fearful odds. The 



IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 255 

brigades of Matthies and Raum formed in line of battle under a 
tremendous fire of artillery and started across the open, sloping 
field on the double quick. A furious cannonade and musketry 
greeted them the moment the line came in sight of the batter- 
ies and the massed regiments of rebel infantry. It seemed as 
if every cannon of the whole rebel army had concentrated its 
fire on that little band, moving in battle. So close were the con- 
tending lines that at times the butts of guns, swords, and even 
stones were used. For an hour it was a deadly, doubtful con- 
flict. 

Once the cry came that the Rebels were forcing their way 
though the tunnel and its deep gorge, and were flanking the 
advanced line. It was too true. A courageous effort on the 
part of some companies of the Fifth Iowa, to drive them back, 
failed, and Maj. Marshall and the adjutant, with the little force 
at the tunnel, were overpowered and mostly captured.* 

We wondered why Thomas did not attack; it seemed as if our 
single line were to be wholly sacrificed in storming the fearful 
ridge alone. Added to the fierce roar of the rebel batteries, was 
the cannonade from the hills on the union side, where the guns 
fired over the heads of our advancing line. The officers, scream- 
ing commands at the top of their voices, could scarcely be heard 
a dozen yards away. But the line moved steadily, rapidly on, 
reaching the base of the hill and entering into the closer fire of 
the rebel musketry, where the struggle became a close, almost 
hand to hand conflict. Temporarily, the line gave way, but the 
pursuing foe, struck in the flank by a brigade of the union line, 
reeled and were followed again by the Iowa, Illinois and Mis- 
souri men. 

This flanking fire came from the ranks of the Sixth Iowa. It 
had been facing toward the ridge, but now, seeing that the Rebels 
had passed the tunnel, the regiment wheeled to the right and 

*The writer, then adjutant of the Fifth, was among the captured at the 
tunnel. As he was taken up on the ridge, a prisoner, he witnessed the 
grand advance of the union army and the flight of Bragg's forces. The 
imprisonment he and his comrades endured for fifteen months was a horri- 
ble experience. Of the 60 captured from his regiment, only 16 lived through 
it. Of the nine of his old Company B, of Newton, taken up that ridge with 
him, only one besides himself survived to tell the tale. 



256 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

poured a blasting fire into the enemy's flank. " Few of that rebel 
line," says Col. Miller, " ever got back to the ridge alive." 

It was three o'clock, and from every hill, apparently, the rebel 
batteries turned on Sherman, while along the whole crest of the 
ridge in his front, were massed clouds of hurrying infantry. 
They were fighting for the key of that great battle field. 

Grant, on Orchard Knob, witnessed the concentration.. It was 
the supreme moment of the battle, and in twenty minutes Gen. 
Thomas's splendid army of the Cumberland was thrown forward 
like an avalanche on to the center of Bragg's army. It came 
with the force of a thunderbolt, storming rifle pits, intrench- 
ments, and breastworks on its way. Hooker, too, and with him 
the Iowa men of Osterhaus's division, had crossed the Chatta- 
nooga valley and was storming up on the rebel right. 

Before sundown that November night, the union army was 
in full possession of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. 
The great battle of Chattanooga had been won. Bragg's army 
was in disastrous retreat, and the President of the United States, 
still listening to the tick, tick of the telegraph, in the white 
house at Washington, sent to the armies of Hooker, of Sherman 
and of Grant, the thanks of a grateful nation. 

The whole nation was glad. Iowa rejoiced especially. Of 
those gallant regiments storming the heights of Mission Ridge, 
none had fought better or more courageously than the troops 
from Iowa. The men of Sherman's corps, and the men of Iowa 
knew that they were at the key-point of the grand battle, and 
they fought accordingly. The Fifth Iowa lost, including quite 
a number captured, 106 officers and men out of its 248 engaged. 
Several officers, and the color guard were among those captured 
in the assault. The flag, too, though torn nearly to pieces, was 
lost. At the moment it was about to fall into into the rebel 
hands, it was seized by some of those nearest to it, its stars torn 
out, and secreted about their persons. One of these stars was 
saved by John Whitten, now deputy state treasurer. He was 
captured a few moments later and carried the star with him 
through many horrible months of rebel imprisonment. That star, 
worthier than any star of the Order of the Garter, framed aud 



IOWA AT CHATTANOOGA. 257 

preserved, is in the capitol at Des Moiues. Lieut. Chas. S. 
Miller of the Fifth, from Sigourney, was killed, and Gen. C. 
L. Matthies, commanding the brigade, but formerly the beloved 
colonel of the Fifth, was wounded. 

The Sixth Iowa lost heavily in its assaults. Among the killed 
was Capt. Robert Allison. Maj. T. J. Ennis, Captains Calvin 
Minton, Leander Allison and George R. Nunn were wounded. 

The Tenth Iowa men were heroes at Missionary Ridge. 
Harder fighting than theirs was not done in the whole army on 
that eventful, history-making day. Their severe losses, 52 out 
of 250 engaged, proved how dangerous were the points they 
assaulted. Lieutenants Isaac Sexton, Geo. H. Conant and John 
W. Stiffler were all killed while leading their men. Maj. 
Nathaniel McCalla was wounded. So, too, were Lieutenants 
David H. Emry, Mahlon Head, John S. Smith, Hubbard W. 
Bunker, and very many non-commissioned officers. It was a 
fierce two hours' record. 

Col. Clark R. Wever led the Seventeenth Iowa in the battle, 
and its loss of 58 men out of a small number engaged shows 
that that part of the Iowa contingent at Chattanooga was not 
flinching from its duty. Lt.-Col. Archer was captured in the 
breastworks of the enemy. Captains Houston, McNeal and Stuart 
were wounded. Adjt. Woolsey and Lieut. Deal received the com- 
mendation of Col. Wever for coolness and efficiency on the field. 

The Iowa regiments under Osterhaus, with Hooker, suffered 
comparatively little, but they played their part in the demon- 
strations and maneuvers, which, not less than hard fighting, 
helped to chase the Rebels out of their wonderful position. It 
will long be a cherished memory of the Iowa soldiers in Oster- 
haus's division, that they fought with Hooker on Lookout 
Mountain. At Ringgold, in the pursuit, the regiments of Wil- 
liamson's Iowa brigade did good fighting, and suffered their 
severest loss. 

The Twenty-fifth Iowa lost 29 wounded at Ringgold, and every 
third officer was struck. Col. Geo. A. Stone led the regiment. 

The Twenty-sixth Iowa also fought very gallantly at Ring- 
gold. The losses were few, but among them was Capt. John L. 
1. W. T.— 17 



258 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Steele, killed, and Lieutenants N. D. Hubbard and W. Nickel, 
wounded. Lt.-Col. Ferreby was already hors du combat from a 
wound received at Lookout Mountain, though the regiment had 
been commanded there by its Colonel, Milo Smith. 

The Thirtieth Iowa had its heavest loss of the campaign in the 
approach to Chattanooga. At Cherokee, Alabama, the Iowa 
brigade, led by Col. Williamson,* met a body of Rebels in a 
dense fog. A severe musketry battle ensued. The Rebels were 
driven, but Col. W. M. G. Torrence was slain. In his death, the 
state of Iowa lost one of her bravest and best officers. Capt. W. 
H. Randall was also killed, while Captains H. C. Hall, Joseph 
Smith, Matthew Clark, and Adjt. Clendenning were all wounded. 
Some 30 officers and men fell in the short battle — a battle that 
was one of the preludes to the greater contest at Chattanooga. 

Gen. Grant had 60,000 men at Chattanooga, but the position 
in front of him had been deemed impregnable. The victory was 
a very great one and ought to have ended the war. Gen. Grant 
believed that if the Southern press had had the liberty to speak, 
the war would have been ended then and there. From that hour 
on, the Rebels fought without spirit or hopes of success. Great 
rejoicings were caused in the North by the great victory. " God 
bless you all," telegraphed President Lincoln to Gen. Grant. " I 
tender you and all under you my profoundest gratitude." 

The battles at Missonary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, viewed 
from a height, must have been a military spectacle of surpassing 
grandeur. Col. Stone of the Twenty-fifth Iowa, who with his 
regiment supported a New York battery on a high point on 
Lookout Mountain, says: "Nothing could exceed the grandeur 
of this battle, from the point at which we viewed it. Every 
gun from the Raccoon Mountain batteries to those of Moccasin 
Point was in plain view, and our lines of infantry so close that 
acquaintances were easily recognized. At 12 m., the grand 
attack began, and soon the battle-smoke hung over and envel- 
oped the mountain like a funeral pall, and the whole battle, like 
a panorama, passed around and before us/' 

*After the battle of Chattanooga, Gen. Sherman urged that the colonels, 
among them J. A. Williamson, of Iowa, who had been leading brigades, 
be promoted to brigadier generals. 



OHAPTEE XXII. 

THANKSGIVING DAY. 
1863. 

The year 1863 was the greatest year in American history. On 
the first day of that year, President Lincoln, by the single stroke 
of his pen, abolished the cause of the great war. The high 
sounding declaration that this was aland of " liberty to all men," 
was no longer to be a burning lie. To break the chains of three 
millions of people, was an opportunity seldom vouchsafed to 
man. Abraham Lincoln understood the importance of his act, 
and invoked upon it "the considerate judgment of mankind, 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God/ 1 

In Iowa, the appearance of the Emancipation Proclamation 
was hailed by loyal men as a proof that the hand of God was 
guiding our country, and men gave thanks that Providence had 
raised up a man with the courage to perform the crowning deed 
of centuries. Nobody believed or expected that freeing the 
slaves could end the war. Indeed, for a time, it strengthened the 
hands of the Rebels with a desperation bordering on madness 
while their sympathizers in the North found new and bitterer 
reasons for opposing the government. Now, indeed, the war 
on the part of the South, was to be waged to the bitter end. 
With slavery gone, there was nothing more to lose — there was 
something to win still — their bare lives, for at this period most 
just men believed that the suppression of the rebellion would 
be properly accompanied by the execution of many of the lead- 
ing conspirators. 

Outside the rebel aiders and abetters in the state, there were 
few men who did not think the President had done right. The 
better class of Democrats in the state joined the Republicans in 

(259) 



260 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

giving praise for the heaven-inspired deed. At an i mme nse 
mass meeting in Des Moines, the Hon. C. C. Cole, a life long 
Democrat and partisan, stood up and delivered a triumphant argu- 
ment in vindication of the proclamation. If men were to be 
divided now, said he, into Abolitionists, or Secessionists, as the 
newspapers charge, why then he knew which way to go. He 
was not a Secessionist. God and his countrymen knew that. 
If the President had the power to shoot Rebels in arms, he had 
the power to confiscate their slaves. The greater power includes 
the less. 

In his earnest appeal to support the government, Mr. Cole 
represented the feelings of the more intelligent, and the better 
class of Democrats in all Iowa. They were not disloyal — they 
were not Secessionists; but they were opponents of many of the 
administration's measures, measures which time found to be nec- 
essary, wise and best. Though the class of Democrats for whom 
Cole spoke cheered him for his words, that other class of Demo- 
crats, the Mahoney wing of the party, as it was called, worked 
itself into a rage and an indignation that was boundless. The 
press of that party teemed with assaults on the President, and 
on his advisers. Its leaders, in their violence of speech, were 
scarcely less reckless than were the men in open rebellion in the 
South. They pretended to be for the Union, yet opposed every 
single measure that looked toward putting down the rebellion. 
They were, in short, traitors. Had the union men of the South 
been as bold as were the Copperheads of Iowa, the outraged South- 
erners would have hung them all. It was the weakness of the 
administration that their ravages were permitted in a lo}'al state. 

August 27th, only a few months after the patriotic and loyal 
speech of C. C. Cole, the extremists and the disorderly of the 
democratic party met at Iowa City and in open convention 
declared the prosecution of the war to be "unconstitutional, and 
oppressive 1 ' and "a prolific source of usurpation, tyranny and cor- 
ruption." Of course, the sensible and loyal members of the 
democratic party were not responsible for the ravings of their 
disloyal comrades, but they were guilty of a grave wrong in so 
often permitting those disloyal elements to speak in the name of 





-7^> 



\ 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 261 

the whole party. In the election that followed in the autumn, 
the people of Iowa, by their votes, charged up the wrongs that 
had been done in the states to the whole democratic party. 

On the 17th of June, 1883, the Republicans held their state 
convention at Des Moines. It was the largest convention ever 
held in the state. Two counties only were not represented. 
Gov. Kirk wood was not a candidate for re-election. There was 
much friendly sparring for his place by the friends of Gen. Fitz 
Henry Warren, Elijah Sells and Col. Wm. M. Stone. Other 
able men, like H. C. Caldwell and Col. M. M. Crocker, were also 
urged upon the convention and received some votes. The race, 
however, was between Fitz Henry Warren, Elijah Sells and Col. 
Stone. 

By a majority of 4 votes, Col. Stone was declared nominated, 
and the convention proceeded in warm terms to express to Gov. 
Kirk wood the thanks of the people of Iowa for the able, fearless, 
and patriotic manner in which he had discharged the duties of 
governor during two terms of office. 

Col. Wm. M. Stone was one of the brilliant men of the state. 
He was a young man of bright promise, of fine address and of 
talent. He possessed in him the elemeots of popularity. He 
was a strikingly good speaker, a patriot and a zealous partisan. 
When the war opened, he abandoned a lucrative and an honorable 
position — a judgeship, to enter the army. He raised a company 
of volunteers for the Third regiment, was soon appointed major 
of the same, and was afterward made colonel of the Twenty- 
second infantry. In the army, as in civil life, his versatile tal- 
ents, his hale fellowship and his gallantry withal, made him a 
popular companion. He led a dashing brigade in the struggle 
at Port Gibson, and was wounded while charging with his regi- 
ment, in the assault of May 22d, at the forts at Vicksburg. 
How many patriotic votes that bandaged arm gave the gallant 
colonel, when he entered the convention hall, fresh from the 
field of carnage, may not be guessed. 

He had able and brilliant competitors for the honors he bore 
away from the convention, and the ablest of them, without 
waiting for a definite and sure decision of the close ballot, rose, 



262 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

and, in the most loyal, and in the happiest speech of his life. 
urged on the delegates the unanimous nomination of Col. Wm. 
M. Stone. That was the gallant and the patriotic general, Fitz 
Henry Warren, the leader of some of the finest cavalry in the 
service of the Union. 

Shortly, the democratic party also held a convention. It 
resulted in one of the saddest things in Iowa politics. Its plat- 
form was against the prosecution of the war. The leaders who 
controlled the convention were members of a disloyal wing of 
the party whose daily utterances were expressions of deadly 
hatred for the soldiers at the front, and for the administration 
and its supporters at home. Maturin L. Fisher was nominated 
as the convention's candidate for governor. For some reason, 
he saw fit to decline the questionable honor. It then struck the 
managing committee, inconsistently enough, that a soldier s 
name on their ticket might prove a winning card. 

In looking about, their eyes fell on the gallant hero of Fort 
Donelson. Gen. Tuttle was home on leave of absence and in a 
moment of weakness permitted the committee to place his dis- 
tinguished name on their banner as a candidate for governor. 
It was a novel spectacle — one of the war heroes running for 
office on a platform opposed to the war. Gen. Tuttle's loyalty, 
patriotism and devotion to country, were known to all men. 
Even in his letter of acceptance, these things were all reiter- 
ated. He was for the prosecution of the war and for nothing 
else. 

It was just as thoroughly known that the people nominating 
him were not favorable to the prosecution of the war. His 
loyal letter they did not make public, except when goaded to it, 
and then only in occasional instances. It was charged that this 
letter was only intended for distribution in the army, while 
the opposite sentiments should be spread among their followers 
at home. In the army, the feeling became intense. There was 
deep regret and astonishment that a patriot, and so good a 
soldier, should be misled by designing men to occupy so equiv- 
ocal a position. " He is by far too good a man," wrote Gov- 
Kirkwood, " to be sacrificed by such a scurvy lot of politicians 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 263 

as Dean, Mahoney and Byington. I am sorry for the course he 
has taken." Mahoney was on the same ticket for sheriff at 
Dubuque, and union soldiers from that district received tickets 
with the name of the honored soldier at the top, and the hated 
Copperhead at the bottom. The most emphatic and sometimes 
the most violent resolutions and addresses were adopted by the 
men in the regiments. Tuttle's own regiment, the gallant 
Second, condemned him in the fiercest tones and without a dis- 
senting voice. The men of the Seventh Iowa, while expressing 
the keenest regrets at Tuttle's acceptance, published in most of 
the newspapers of the state their detestation of the party leading 
him, and declared the general, himself, unworthy of further 
confidence. Public feeling ran fearfully high. 

Most men felt that to defeat Stone at such a time would be 
an awful blow to the loyal cause in Iowa. " It must not be — 
Stone must not be defeated," wrote Judge Dillon privately to 
the governor. " He has committed the great and inexcusable 
blunder of coming home. He is now at home. We are of the 
belief that some good man must be sent among the soldiers at 
once. The army vote is the pivotal point in the campaign. A 
stampede there would defeat Stone, and his defeat would be worse 
than the loss of a battle. No man has a deeper interest in the 
result of this election than you. You have kept the state right, 
gloriously right, and you must turn it over to loyal successors." 

Later, probably no man saw the extent of the mistake more 
than Tuttle himself, but it was too late to remedy the harm. 
He recognized that he had been made a tool of, and in after days 
manfully abandoned the party. 

At the election that autumn, Stone received in the army 
16,791 votes — Tuttle 2,904. The total vote for Stone was 86,122 ; 
for Tuttle 47,948. In some of the Iowa regiments, Stone 
received almost the unanimous vote — Democrats and all must 
have voted against the strange alliance. In the Graybeard regi- 
ment, Tuttle received but 44 votes. In the soldiers 1 hospital, at 
Keokuk, out of 595 votes, only 15 were for the democratic ticket. 
In the single Iowa company in the army of the Potomac, every 
single vote was cast for Stone. 



264: IOWA IK WAR TIMES. 

It was a tremendous rebuke of the men in Iowa who opposed 
the war.* Elsewhere in the country the loyal spirit manifested 
was about the same. Vallandigham in Ohio was defeated for 
governor by an overwhelming majority. The soldiers voted 
against him everywhere. In Hamilton county, out of 4,435 
soldiers 1 votes he received but 128, and in one of the large hos- 
pitals but a single vote was cast for him. And yet Vallandig- 
ham's election had been worked and maneuvered for, as no other 
man's had in the history of the country. The Copperheads in the 
North not only worked and prayed for his election — the Rebels 
in the South, believing his election would mean aid to the rebel- 
lion, encouraged it, sent agents and money north to work for it, 
and undertook military campaigns to encompass it. Their con- 
centration of troops on Chattanooga, and the awful battle of 
Chickamauga, were precipitated in order to influence Vallandig- 
hanrs election. The winning of a battle by the Rebels south 
was to mean the winning of a victory by the Rebels north. 
Enlistments in the union army were discouraged, the draft inter- 
fered with, and the union columns left, as a result, without proper 
additional aid. The plan of the Rebels north and south was 
partially successful. Chickamauga was lost. 

That was the great War Summer — the summer of 1863. It 
was the summer of great events in this country; and, it was 
the period when Iowa stood noblest to the front. Vicksburg, 
Gettysburg, Port Hudson, Helena, and the retreat of Lee from 
Pennsylvaiua, were great historic mile stones. The summer was 
not over before President Lincoln asked all loyal men and women 
to give thanks to God for so many victories. August 6th was 
set apart as a special day of praise. It was observed in Iowa 
everywhere, and out of the dark clouds sweeping above the 
country, men saw tokens of further victory. In that year, and 
up to that day, the Rebels had lost 91,000 men. Our own losses, we 
scarcelyldared to count- Our regiments were being thinned down. 

*Gen. Tuttle's loyalty was so unquestioned, his gallantry so distinguished, 
that the indignation of the soldiers passed off with the occasion, and in later 
years, we see the same leader almost unanimously chosen by thousands of 
the same Boldiers, to be the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the 
Republic in Iowa. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1883. 265 

to skeletons, while volunteering was discouraged, and when pos- 
sible, prevented by the great Peace Party, made up of all the 
bad elements of society, of the haters of human liberty, 
and the collected opponents of the administration. There 
are usually more men on the wrong side than on the 
right — on the bad side than on the good. In the North 
that year it sometimes seemed, spite of the brilliant victories of 
our soldiers, that a majority of the people were bent on letting 
the government go. Many union men halted when they 
thought they were fighting for the slave. To enforce the 
emancipation proclamation was to free the negro, and thou- 
sands preferred the Union with slavery to no Union at all. 
Many, however, rose to the height of the occasion — Democrats 
alike with Republicans, and by act and word upheld the hands 
of the loyal governors and determined that not only slavery, but 
every thing else in the South, should be sacrificed, rather than 
that the government should perish. 

Many events of interest were taking place that summer. In 
Ohio, the President had, in May, sent the traitor Vallandig- 
ham outside the union lines. In Iowa, some of the traitors 
were put in arrest, or sent to places of confinement. Jones, 
an ex-U. S. senator, was already in an eastern fortress, and 
Mahoney and Henry Clay Dean, W. M. Hill and others of that 
vilk, were locked up in safe places only to escape justice by taking 
the oath of allegiance to the government. Henry Clay Dean 
was mobbed at Keokuk, by soldiers just then home on furlough, 
and was turned over uninjured to the provost marshal. 
Mahoney, the Dubuque editor, was seized by Marshal Hoxie, 
and immediately wrote to the governor, professing a degree of 
loyalty unheard of in all his public utterances.* 

*Burtis House, Davenport, Aug. 15, 1862. 
Governor Kirkwood : 

Dear Sir: I have received and read your letter to me of this date. I am 
more than disappointed in it. You not only withhold consolation, but, like 
my eoernies, assume that I am disloyal to my country. This from you has been 
a poignant allegation, knowing in my soul how unwarranted it is in fact. 
I 9hall have to take care that 1 am not driven against my will into disloyalty, 
for it seems that those who charge me with being so, are laboring with might 
and main to make me feel and act so. Their labor will be in vain. I shall not 
let any outrage that may be inflicted on me, nor any indignity to which I might 



266 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

T. W. Claggett, the editor of the Keokuk Constitution, a sheet 
devoted to vile abuse of the administration, had his press and 
types seized by irate soldiers and thrown into the Mississippi 
river. The very general reget seemed to be that he had not 
been thrown in with them. He, too, wrote to the governor, 
suddenly finding the evil that resulted from no government or 
order when applied to himself. 

In both these cases the governor declined to interfere, point- 
ing to the courts as a remedy for damages.* 

While this was going on at Keokuk, the Copperheads were 
carrying things with a high hand elsewhere, and usually at points 
where there were no f urloughed soldiers at home to interfere. 
Mahoney's types came near following those of Claggett into 
the Mississippi river. Stilson Hutchins was Mahoney's partner 
in printing copperhead songs and copperhead abuse of the gov- 
ernment. 

In Appanoose county, a copperhead mob threatened to drive a 
respectable citizen out of the country for the unpardonable crime 
of giving employment to a black man. This was not an uncom- 
mon sentiment in that section of the state. In Taylor county, 
negroes were refused residence, and were threatened with mobs. 

yet be subjected drive me from the path of duty to my country. If the consti- 
tution be outraged, it shall be still my constitution. If the government be 
subverted, I for one shall adhere to it and do my best to restore it to its 
legitimate condition. This isdisloyalty though, unfortunately for me, and I 
must suffer the pains, the indignities, the taunts and probably the penalties, 
with a trial of being a disloyalist. Governor, my friend, a government, or rather 
an administration, which was loyal to the constitution would not do this. 
But pardon my digression; I set out to write you an acknowledgment of 
your letter and to tell how poignantly its tone and assumed criminality in me 
pained me; you would not have so written if you had known my heart. But 
for the expression of regret in your letter at my situation, I would have con- 
cluded that you too had become my enemy, and thus broken one of the few 
props remaining of my faith in the uprightness of man, and in the purity and 
stability of human friendship. Leaving to other times and opportunities the 
vindication of my conduct from reproach and the re-establishment of my per- 
son in its rights and liberty, I take my leave of you as my official superior and 
fellow^ citizen, to hold such a relation towards you hereafter as it will be 
more in your honor than mine to establish. You have set me the example 
of saying, I am yours respectfully, 

D. A. Maiioney. 

^Discipline may have been a little loose just then in Keokuk, for Robert 
Bain, one of the soldiers charged with throwing Claggett's rebel types into 
the river, was brought up by his officers for punishment the next morning, 
and received, amid the cheers of his companions, a promotion to drum major 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 267 

These negroes were mostly slaves escaped from thralldom in Mis- 
souri, or had been set free by their masters. Gov. Kirkwood gave 
the civil officers and the people of Taylor to understand that 
black men had a right to live in Iowa, and that any attempt to 
drive them out would be met with the bayonets of the state 
militia. It was a serious and a critical time in many portions 
of the state, where Copperheads openly and violently threatened 
disorder and mobs, in resistance to any attempt that might be 
made to enforce the draft then pending again in the state. At 
Dubuque, serious alarm was felt concerning mobs on the very 
point of organizing and striking. Gov. Kirkwood wrote to the 
citizens of Dubuque as he had written to the people in Taylor 
county, that the first disturbance would be met by force of arms, 
by the militia from other and more loyal districts. His firm atti- 
tude checked open outrage and violation of law; yet in Keokuk, 
Poweshiek and Mahaska counties, disturbances with loss of life 
took place. The force of the state was immediately brought to 
bear and quiet was restored. Many disturbances were caused 
throughout the state by the Copperheads wearing their badges 
of treason in the shape of copperhead breast-pins, on public occa- 
sions. It was no uncommon thing for these breastpins to be 
torn from their wearers, who were beaten by indignant soldiers 
home on furlough. Not infrequently, too, there was an accom- 
paniment of bloodshed. 

In the countries bordering on Missouri, constant disorder, viola- 
tion of law, and murder were rendering all government a mock- 
ery. Rebels, bandits, thieves and murderers would escape from 
Missouri and fly to the congenial fellowship to be found in these 
border counties of Iowa. The governor organized the militia 
in every southern county, and prepared for open rebellion 
against law in that region. He also asked the government that 
a general officer be sent to the state, and that Iowa be made a 
military district, where martial law could be enforced when nec- 
essary. The government responded by appointing Brig. Gen. 
Roberts to the command, with headquarters at Davenport. 
Now, in case of great disorder, not only the state militia, but 
the union soldiers, could be called out for protection. 



268 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

The rebel aiders and abettors in Iowa took the hint, and the 
loud threatenings remained threatenings only.* All these 
troubles and disorder in loyal Iowa were the direct result of the 
treasonable teachings of the press and leaders of the so-called 
" Mahoney Democrats/' Not one Republican — not one decent 
loyal Democrat, was among them. It was the dark side of the 
medal, in the picture of Iowa for 1863. 

Spite of disorders at home, and great battles in the field, the 
prosperity of the nation at large, and of Iowa in particular, was 
extremely noticeable. Forty million dollars worth of United 
States bonds were sold in New York in a single week, and six 
millions in a single day. In the East, at least, men were making 
fortunes, and in the West, except for the wounded and the dead, 
there was little to tell that the government was struggling with 
one of the greatest wars of all history. Spite of all discourage- 
ments in the early part of the year, the sacrifices for country by 
men and women in Iowa, went on. 

There was no halt in doing good, while the wreck and ruin 
in many an Iowa home was sorrowful in the extreme. The 
maimed and the dead belonged to almost every household, and 
not a few were the cases of Spartan courage, where father and 
son and brother followed in quick succession to the bloody altar 
of their country.f 

* Among other outrages proposed that summer was the assassination of 
Gov. Kirkwood. On July 6th, J. Q. Detwiler wrote to the governor, relat- 
ing a conversation that had been overheard in the bedroom of a hotel in 
Osage. In this midnight conversation, it transpired that a plan was 
arranged for the assassination, within six weeks time, of both Gov. Kirkwood 
and Gov. Yates. An attempt was made shortly on the life of Yates, but 
Gov. Kirkwood pursued his loyal way undisturbed. 

fHere is a sad extract from a letter urging the governor to go to Vicks- 
burg to look after the sick and wounded soldiers. The governor did go to 
Vicksburg, and the sanitary agents were looked after: 

Dear Governor : Win, Hopkirk, mentioned already, died on boat before 
reaching St. Louis. Mr. Hopkirk, sen., had one son and two sons-in-law 
in the army. One died, one lost his right leg, and whilst absent lost three 
children from diptheria, and now William, the son, is dead — yet with all 
this desolation in the family, Mr. H., his wife and daughters, were here yes- 
terday with a wagon load of provisions to send by Mrs. Woods to the Iowa 
soldiers at Vicksburg', and they worked all day here helping to pack the 
stores. Theirs was a quiet, sad, earnest devotion to the cause — their manly 
sons were gone but their comrades in the field needed help, and they gave 
freely. Yes, Governor, go and see that your agents do not neglect their 
duty towards the poor invalid, disheartened and homesick soldier: they will 
all thank you, and their friends at home will never forget your kindness. 
In haste, respectfully and truly yours, 

Chas. S. Clabke. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 269 

The spring had opened with great depression of public feeling 
bordering almost on despair. The midsummer saw that despair 
turned to hope, and the change had been wrought by loyal bay- 
onets of which Iowa claimed an honorable share. 

"The state of Iowa is proud of your achievements," wrote Gov. 
Kirkwood to the soldiers of the state, at the fall of Vicksburg. 
She renders you her homage and gratitude, and with exul- 
tant heart claims you as her sons. You have made it a high 
privilege to be a citizen of Iowa, to share your renown, and it 
will be a proud remembrance to you while life shall last, and a 
rich legacy to your children, that you were members of the 
Army of the Tennessee." 

Thanksgiving day of 1863 was ushered in, in Iowa, with the 
news of the glorious victory of Chattanooga — truly one of the 
great battles — one of the greatest victories of modern times. 
Iowa soldiers were there, too, whole brigades of them, and the 
pride of the state in the heroism of her sons in the battle knew 
no bounds. Everybody realized that from that moment on, the 
Confederacy of the Rebels was doomed. Many brave Iowa men 
left their hearts 1 blood on that battlefield — many went into 
southern prisons to die; but, while mourning her sacrifice, 
the state of Iowa held up her face in conscious pride that her 
sons had been foremost in the victory. 

In all the towns of the state there was praise and thanks- 
giving.* In the larger towns, union services were held and all 

*The governor's proclamation of that Thanksgiving day is of interest. It 
reads: I, Samuel J. Kirkwood, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby 
appoint Thursday, the 26th inst., as a Day of Thanksgiving, Prayer and 
Praise to Almighty God, for His manifold mercies to us as a people, during 
the year that is past. 

Let us thank Him for the great victories of our arms over the foes of civil 
and religious liberty. 

Let us thank Him for the heroism, fortitude and enduring patriotism of 
our people, as shown by our soldiers in the field, and by our people at home, 
in their unshaken determination to preserve the glorious institutions of our 
fathers unimpaired, for themselves and their children after them. 

Let us thank Him that our domestic peace has been unbroken, and the 
first budding of internal violence has been quickly crushed, without the 
shedding of human blood. 

Let us thank Him for the general health and prosperity of our people, 
while we remember with earnest prayer and liberal hand the widow and the 
fatherless victims of this cruel and wicked war. 

Let us repent of our manifold sins as a people, for which we are now 



270 IOWA IN WAS TIMES. 

things forgotten save that the soldiers had won a great 
victory. No doubtful sentiments, no half loyal utter- 
ances were tolerated. At Burlington, the selected speaker 
at the services, Rev. Westerfelt, failed to rise to the occa- 
sion. He saw only gloom ahead, blamed the Abolitionists 
almost as much as he did the Rebels, and threw a very 
chill into the hearts of the assembly. He was no sooner seated 
than the Rev. Wm. Salter rose to his feet and in words of burn- 
ing eloquence and patriotic fire, turned the chilled audience into 
a cheering, fervid mass of praising men and women. He 
pictured the difference between humanity for the slave, and the 
treason of the Rebels — between the white snow of the Alps, 
and the black curse of the rebellion. He pictured the camp 
and the battle-field, the wounded and the dying — and all for 
country, in words so burning and in thoughts so intense as never 
to be forgotten by those who heard them. Burlington never 
saw so loyal a moment, so intense a feeling, as when the news 
came of Chattanooga, and when William Salter stood up and 
talked of the soldiers and country. 

Words like Salter's found an echo everywhere in Iowa. Out- 
side the abettors of the South, the people of Iowa were proving 
themselves worthy of the best government on earth. They pro- 
posed to keep that government, and it was kept at the cost of 
the blood of her sons. 

In this war summer of 1863, Iowa was not only represented 
well in the armies of the country — her representatives in the 
national council were alike patriotic and prominent. In the 
senate, Gov. James W. Grimes exercised a power and influence 
surpassed by few of the statesmen of his day. His excellent 
sense, sound judgment and great ability were recognized by the 

experiencing His chastisements, and humbly implore His gracious spirit to 
turn us therefrom, and His pardoning grace for that which is past, that we 
may cease our haughty pride in our greatness and prosperity, and recognize 
Him as the author of "every good and perfect gift." that we may cease^ to 
oppress the " poor and him that hath none to help," that we may remember 
that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people," 
and that peace may again soon prevail in all the borders of our once happy 
land. 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 
Executive Office, Iowa, Nov. 2, 1863. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 271 

country and by a body of senators seldom if ever excelled in 
statesmanship in the history of the country. He was a strong 
man, a true patriot and a firm upholder of the right. His 
position in the senate, as chairman of the committee on naval 
affairs, gave him great opportunities to serve the country, and 
great responsibilities. Those opportunities were not wasted — his 
responsibilities not shirked. No great measure passed the 
senate in which his hand was not seen — no great occasion 
offered, when his voice was not heard and listened to. The navy 
was strengthened and improved under his hand, and with his 
direction and counsel was built a fleet of river and coast gun- 
boats, iron clads, unique in warfare, and so powerful as to almost 
change the naval methods of the world. " He had," said Senator 
Anthony, "the greatest knowledge of naval affairs of any man I 
ever knew." 

He was one of the very first statesmen to insist on arming the 
negroes that they might help to defend a country in which, 
from that hour forth, they were to exist as men and not as 
slaves. Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, in a speech in the 
senate declared that if the sentiments of James W. Grimes and 
Charles Sumner had been the sentiment of the President and 
Cabinet, the rebellion would have been crushed long before it 
was, and the trouble ground to atoms. '* These two statesmen," 
continued Senator Wilson " have, from the beginning, compre- 
hended this rebellion, and advocated the proper remedies." 

On every momentous subject in the senate his advice was 
asked. He was more than able; he was good, honorable, manly. 
He hated back-door politics, secret statesmanship, and every 
policy that was not frank, open and before the country. He 
urged that executive sessions of the senate be public, at least 
while acting on nominations of the President. " 1 know nothing 
of diplomacy," he once said in the senate, " but, my idea has 
always been that matters of state should be made public." 
Public duty was, with him, above all other considerations, and 
the state of Iowa had in him a pillar of fidelity and support that 
helped to make the state regarded throughout the Union. 

At the side of Gov. Grimes in the senate, stood James Harlan, 



272 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

able, upright and esteemed as a public man. His sound sense and 
statesman-like abilities soon placed him in the Cabinet among 
the personal advisers of the great President. It was an honor to 
Iowa to have her senator selected as one of the few to help 
guide the ship of state through such storms as have seldom 
overtaken any country. 

In the lower house at Washington, there were men of more 
than state fame from Iowa. J. B. Grinnell, James F. Wilson, 
John A. Kasson and Hiram Price were able and true represen- 
tatives of a people who had become accustomed to being repre- 
sented by able men. On some of them, too, the higher honors 
of statesmanship waited. John A. Kasson, in later years, 
became an adviser of presidents and a prince among diplomats. 
James F. Wilson, after valuable and long experience, stepped 
into the chamber of the senate, where his ability and true 
statesmanship brought honors to himself and to his state. He 
was a patriot in the War Time, and a man on whose cool judgment 
and great sound sense as a statesman, the loyal men of Iowa relied. 

When the war ceased and great questions of reconstruction 
came up, President Grant offered Mr. Wilson the most impor- 
tant place in the cabinet. He was not seeking office, and pre- 
ferred, for the time, the quiet of home, and the work that came 
of attention to his own affairs. Twice, cabinet positions were 
urged upon him, and twice declined. Except Elihu Washburne 
of Illinois, perhaps no man living had so largely possessed the 
confidence and esteem of Gen. Grant. 

In that same summer, too, of 1863, was first heard in the 
national council hall the voice of another son of Iowa, whose name 
and whose fame were to become broad as the nation. William B. 
Allison and James A. Garfield entered public life in Washington 
together. Both trod together the paths of political fame. Both 
were elected to the senate, and when Garfield became President, 
it was his sincere wish to have with him in his cabinet and as an 
adviser, his distinguished and able friend. As with Senator 
Wilson, so with Senator Allison, private affairs deterred him from 
accepting the highest position in the gift of the President. Sena- 
tor Allison's great abilities as a statesman, have been and are 




y/-^£^ 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1863. 273 

recognized throughout the country. His politics and his policies 
have been considered from the wartimes on, conservative and safe. 
He has been an authority on great subjects, and a counselor for 
distinguished statesmen. Mr. Chase himself, the father of the 
war system of finances, probably possessed no broader views, no 
profounder knowledge of our money system than did Mr. Alli- 
son, and no man in the councils of the nation has a deeper 
insight into general legislation. 

When Mr. Allison was elected to congress in 1863, he was on 
the military staff of Gov. Kirkwood, and to his constant and 
patriotic energy was due much of the success and rapidity with 
which troops were raised in the counties of his district. On the 
ticket opposing him for congress, was the name of D. A. 
Mahoney, the leader of the anti-war party in Iowa. Mr. Allison 
was elected by a great majority and entered on a career of fame 
and usefulness of which his state will ever be proud. Both 
Senator Allison and Senator Wilson, by their great abilities 
won the regard of the whole nation, and both have been sug- 
gested for the highest place in the gift of the people. 



I. W. T.— 18 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

IOWA IN THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 
Spring of 1864. 

Many Iowa troops took part in the campaign for the posses- 
sion of the Red River country. In that campaign of disaster 
and defeat, no soldiers came off with so good a record as they. 
If Banks's army had been defeated, Iowa soldiers, anyway, had 
not been disgraced, and not once in the whole campaign, either 
under Banks, or with Steele, was an Iowa regiment pitted 
against numbers that were not greater than its own. The fact 
is worthy of record. 

In the early spring of 1864, Gen. Banks, commanding at New 
Orleans, was directed by Gen. Halleck to move an army against 
Shreveport, a little town at the head of navigation on the Red 
river. Shreveport was the center of an enormously rich 
cotton district, and among other objects of this expedition, it 
was proposed to secure all this cotton for the half famishing 
mills of the North. It was no uncommon thing, before the war, 
for Shreveport to ship 40,000 bales of cotton down the river in 
a single year. 

But there were other more important objects connected with 
this campaign, the greatest of which was to get full military 
possession of all that part of Louisiana and Arkansas, and be in 
a position for the immediate occupation of Texas, thus saving to 
the country and giving protection to, all the large population in 
those districts that had remained loyal. There was also to be a 
political significance attached to the campaign. The occupa- 
tion of Texas, especially, was to have a bearing on public senti- 
ment in Europe. 

Altogether, great hope was based on a successful issue. Great 
plans were laid — great preparations made. Banks's army, some 

(274) 



IOWA IN" THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 275 

17,000 strong, was to move toward Alexandria early in March. 
A portion of Gen. Sherman's old army, some 10,000 men, under 
Gen. A. J. Smith, was to come down from Vicksburg and 
proceed up the Red river from its mouth. Another army of 
7,000 men under Gen. Steele, was to march south from Little 
Rock, co-operating with and joining Banks, at Shreveport, 
while a splendid fleet of gunboats was to patrol the river. 
None of these separate columns were half equal in numbers 
to the rebel force in front of Shreveport — a force that, as the 
sequel showed, was capable of being concentrated and hurled on 
to either of them. Gen. Banks had been an able politician, and 
was a prominent leader in civil affairs. He had not been tried 
much as a soldier. 

On the 12th of March, 1864, the iron fleet started up the Red 
river, escorting the transports bearing the command of Gen. 
Smith. After a little diversion with an old rebel encampment 
and fort at Bayou de Glaize, Smith's command marched over- 
land to Port de Russey, a strong, bastioned and bomb proof work 
on the south side of the Red river, and seventy miles from its 
mouth. It was an absolute necessity that this fort should be 
stormed and taken before the columns could proceed. Its 
strength and position made it a complete bar against any prog- 
ress of the gunboats up the river, and the presence of this fleet 
with the army was to be of vast importance. Fortunately, Fort 
de Russey was not strongly garrisoned. 

On the 14th of March, Smith's command, including Col. 
W. T. Shaw's brigade of the Fourteenth, Twenty-seventh and 
Thirty-second Iowa, with the Twenty-fourth Missouri, and Third 
Indiana battery, marched nearly thirty miles in ten hours, and 
then, after a little skirmishing, stormed and took the fort in 
twenty minutes. The federal loss was small — some forty-nine 
all told; but that was one of the brilliant feats of the war and 
it was Iowa's first fighting in the Red river campaign. 

For their gallantry at Fort de Russey, Colonels Gilbert, Scott, 
and Lt.-Col. Newbold received the thanks of the brigade comman- 
der. So, too, did Capt. Granger and Lieut. Bueli of the Twenty- 
seventh and Fourteenth Iowa, who were on his staff. 



276 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

To take Fort de Russey, was to take Alexandria — as that was 
left now without protection. On the approach of the gunboats, 
two days later, it surrendered without a struggle. This splendid 
gunboat fleet met with many difficulties and many dangers in 
that campaign. The water in the river was often too low for 
vessels of such draft, and constant attempts were made to 
capture it. Nothing short of great ingenuity and severe labor 
in dam building saved it from loss by low water, and nothing 
but the bravery of Admiral Porter and his men saved it from 
destruction by the enemy's batteries along the shore. 

Alexandria taken, and occupied as a depot for provisions, the 
army moved on to Natchitoches, eighty miles farther up the 
river. Gen. Banks's column from New Orleans had joined this 
army at Alexandria, but as a part of Smith's command was 
recalled to Vicksburg, and 3,000 men were left to guard Alex- 
andria, the available fighting force was reduced to 20,000 men. 
Shreveport, the destination of the army, was still a hundred 
miles away, and the iron fleet could not, on account of low water, 
pass farther up than Grand Ecore. Another large detachment 
had now to remain by the river, protecting the transports. 

The remainder of the army was pushed on to a point known 
as Pleasant Hill, where the enemy was met in force on the 7th 
of April. He was pushed back that day and the next morning 
to Sabine Cross Roads, some twelve miles from Pleasant Hill, 
where he made a stand and fought a hard battle. The Rebels 
numbered over 20,000, and were commanded by Kirby Smith, 
Dick Taylor, Mouton and Green. 

Banks was at the front, and so too were his wagon trains. 
His fighting men, too many of them, were in Frankliu's division, 
miles in the rear. Messenger after messenger from Banks failed 
to get them to the front till nearly night, and till after Gen. 
Ransom and others, gallantly fighting, had been outflanked, 
overpowered, and driven back. A new line was formed, and the 
union men fought desperately; but, flushed with victory and 
superior in numbers, the Rebels charged and flanked again, and 
again our lines were driven back in dismay. A panic seemed to 
seize the troops on finding the single road to the rear blocked 



IOWA IN THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 2 li 

with wagon trains. The defeat speedily became a disaster; many 
good officers were killed or wounded. A thousand prisoners 
were lost, 10 guns captured, and all efforts to check the flying 
troops were made in vain. The army fell back and halted at 
Pleasant Hill, marching all night to get there. 

Only two Iowa regiments shared in this fight and flight. The 
Twenty-eighth and the Twenty-fourth Iowa formed a part of 
Col. Raynor's brigade of the Third division. Only a part of the 
Twenty-fourth, however, under Maj. Wright, was present. The 
remainder, under Capt. Martin, was guarding trains at the rear. 
The Twenty-eighth was commanded by Coi. John Connell. The 
brigade was hurried to the front, on the double-quick most of the 
way, for five miles, passing two miles of wagon train that was out 
of place. At the edge of a field skirted by a wood on the left of 
the Mansfield road, the line halted and engaged the enemy. The 
whole Third divison then on the line numbered but 1,200 men. 
In front of them, and approaching their flanks, were not less 
than 7,000 Rebels occupying good positions and supported by 
several batteries. Here the brigade stood and fought till its 
ammunition was almost expended, and the enemy had with a 
strong cavalry force flanked the division on both sides. The 
whole line speedily gave way, each regiment fighting its way to 
the rear as best it could. The retreat past the trains blocking 
the way was most difficult, and the flying column found no 
safety until it reached the line of the Nineteenth army corps, 
forming several miles at the rear. Ransom's troops and the Iowa 
regiments had done the hard fighting on the field, and they were 
the very last to fall back, Ransom himself being severely wounded. 

The Twenty-eighth lost some 80 officers and men in killed, 
wounded and missing.* Col. John Connell was badly wounded, 
and captured. So too were Adjt. Strong and Lieutenants O. P. 
Dorrance and H. Weaver. The Twenty-fourth lost 34, many of 
whom were wounded and captured. Among them was Capt. W. 
C. Dimmitt, severely wounded, and left on the field. Surgeons 
Witherwax and Lyons were also taken prisoners. 

*No official report of the Twenty-eighth at Sabine Cross Roads seems 
ever to have been made to the governor. 



278 IOWA IX WAR TIMES. 

The morning of the 9th of April, 1864, saw Banks's defeated 
army collected around the little hamlet of Pleasant Hill. It 
had marched all night in the hard retreat, but there had been no 
pursuit from Sabine Cross Roads. Not until the early morning 
of this day did the Rebels know that Banks had fallen back. 
They at once marched against him, but it was late in the day before 
their army was sufficiently formed to commence the real attack. 

Banks's army in the meantime had been strengthened by A. 
J. Smith's force of veterans. It was fortunate for Banks that 
this was so. Gen. Emory's division of Banks's army was at the 
front, and soon skirmishing with the enemy. It was the division 
that had checked the Rebels in their last attack at Sabine Cross 
Roads the evening before. 

Sometime before noon Gen. Banks directed Col. Shaw, with 
his Iowa brigade of Smith's command, to go forward to the 
assistance of Emory's division. Col. Shaw had with him the Four- 
teenth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-second Iowa infantry, and 
the Twenty-fourth infantry of Missouri. By order of Emory, 
his brigade was placed at the extreme front, and across the 
Mansfield wagon road, relieving a force under Gen. McMillan 
that had already been engaged. The brigade of Gen. D wight 
was at Shaw's right and rear, supposed to be supporting him, 
but as the sequel proved, doing nothing of the kind. Benedict's 
brigade and other small forces were at his left rear, but badly 
posted, and when the pinch came, of little service, though 
Benedict gave his life in leading that command in the battle. 
There was a commanding ridge at Shaw's right which could 
protect the rebel advance. This he speedily occupied with the 
Twenty-fourth Missouri, and thus extended his right, but Emory 
failed to make a corresponding move of D wight's brigade; hence 
a gap to the left of Shaw where stood the Thirty-second Iowa. 
Emory, in fact, did not, according to Shaw, appear on the field 
again during the battle. In front of Shaw's main line, was an 
old field dotted with small straggling pine trees; behind him was 
a dense thicket and timber. A little in his advance, to the right 
and nearer the ridge, was posted a section of the Twenty-fifth 
New York battery. 



IOWA IN THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN". 279 

It was now three o'clock, and heavy skirmishing had been 
going on constantly. Then Gen. Stone, chief of Banks's staff, 
rode up, looked at Shaw's line, and pronounced the position 
"well chosen" and the point one "to be held at all hazards." 
Supports for right and left were promised, but did not come. 
Dwight's brigade was now out of position to be of use, and all 
efforts to find that officer and have him move his brigade up, 
proved vain. 

It was a few minutes to five o'clock when the Rebels opened a 
heavy fire on Shaw's line. The battery with him, the Twenty-fifth 
New York, fired a few shots in return and fled to the rear, 
leaving a gun as they ran. A tremendous cavalry dash was 
made by the enemy, to catch this flying battery, but it was 
met by volleys from the Fourteenth Iowa and Twenty- 
fourth Missouri, so close, so withering, that almost every 
man fell dead from his saddle. Some of the men and 
horses of this fierce charge fell 'within the ranks of the 
Fourteenth Iowa. Among them was the bold and dashing 
leader, Col. Bagley. So fatal a cavalry charge had not 
been made during the whole war. This was immediately 
followed by a charge of the enemy's infantry in double lines, 
reaching beyond both flanks of Shaw's command. They were 
met by a steady, constant fire, and the first line of the enemy 
fell back, but not until great losses had been inflicted on Shaw's 
brigade. 

At the same time, heavy fighting had been going on at Shaw's 
left, and the union line was driven back in disorder. Shaw was 
now flanked on both sides, and in danger of being surrounded, 
when Gen. A. J. Smith, seeing the critical situation of the 
brigade, ordered him to withdraw at once and form a new line at 
the rear. 

Col. Shaw attempted to deliver in person the order to his reg- 
iments to retire, as his officers were off, seeking support. Owing 
to the thick brush, it was nearly impossible to ride to the left of 
his brigade, and before he reached there, the enemy were in the 
rear of the Thirty-second Iowa. Shaw at once wheeled, and got 
the remainder of the brigade off in good order, but Col. Scott, 



280 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

with the Thirty-second, was of necessity left to cut his way out as 
best he could. The ammunition of the whole line was about 
expended, and many brave officers and men lay dead before the 
retreat commenced. Lt.-Col. Mix of the Thirty-second, and 
Lt.-Col. Newbold, leading the Fourteenth, were already slain at 
the post of honor, and other noble officers and patriots sacrificed 
their lives on that fierce line, rather than give one inch to treason. 

Shaw's line was only back in its new position, when a com- 
bined attack of the union army drove the Rebels from the field. 
The victory, dear as it was, was won. Shaw's brigade had made 
it possible. 

The long list of dead and wounded officers and men in that 
brigade proved how desperate had been the conflict on his line. 
Like a wall of fire his soldiers had stood between Banks's army 
and an overpowering foe. The reward Col. Shaw received for 
his heroism, and the sacrifices of his brave men we shall see 
later. Each regiment in that " Iron brigade," as it was soon 
called in the army, proved itself worthy of the state from which 
it came. Harder fighting than theirs was not done on that 
bloody field. Many brave officers laid down their lives and were 
mourned by a sorrowing people in Iowa. 

Shaw lost 500 officers and men from his little command. The 
Thirty-second Iowa, under Col. John Scott, with half its officers 
and men killed or wounded, surrounded, and alone, heroically cut 
its way through the rebel lines, and in half an hour was again in 
proper line and anxious to meet the enemy. 

Scott and his men had been rather isolated from the brigade 
all the time, owing to the nature of the ground. In a sense, the 
Thirty-second fought a battle of its own, and alone — and this 
with unparalleled skill and heroism. Facing in three directions, 
to meet the exigency, Col. Scott's little band fought fearlessly 
on. As an evidence of the kind of fighting, company B, with 
46 engaged, had every officer and 26 men either killed or 
wounded. Fiercer fighting than occurred on front, flank and 
rear of the Thirty-second Iowa at Pleasant Hill, is scarcely 
recorded in history. 

It was the Twenty-seventh Iowa's first fight after the gallant 



IOWA IN THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 281 

charge at Fort de Russey, but led by their wounded Col. Gilbert, 
there was no officer in that army but would have thought them 
veterans. 

Lt.-Col. Newbold's Fourteenth Iowa added new fame to a his- 
tory already brilliant in war, and sealed its devotion to honor 
with the blood of its leader, and many of its officers and men. 

Col. Shaw praised the gallant Missourians who bravely held 
his right, as brave soldiers, worthy of every honor. "My men," 
said Shaw, " were the first in the fight — the longest in the fight — 
and in the hardest of the fight, and were the last to leave the battle 
field.'''' All of his officers were complimented, and especially Capt. 
Granger and Lieutenants Berg and Buell, of his staff, and his brave 
orderly, Frederick Nolan. The Thirty-second Iowa lost 210 
officers and men in the battle, mostly killed or wounded. 
Among the killed or those who died of wounds, were Lt.-Col. Mix, 
Adjt. C. H. Huntley, Captains Amos B. Miller and Hubert F. 
Peebles, and Lieutenants Thomas 0. Howard and Abiathar Hull. 
Lieutenants John Devine, John F. Wright, Win. D. Templin, 
and Capt. M. Ackerman were all dangerously wounded. Capt. 
Jonathan Hutchinson, whose brave son was killed at his side in 
the battle, received from Col. Scott special thanks for gallantry. 

The Twenty-seventh Iowa, led in the battle by Col. Gilbert, 
lost a total of 88 officers and men. Col. Gilbert was himself 
slightly wounded. Capt. J. M. Holbrook and Lieut. J. W. 
Granger were severely wounded, while Lieutenants Samuel O. 
Smith and Frank A. Brush died of wounds in the hands of the 
enemy, as did many of Banks's army when the retreat commenced. 

The Fourteenth Iowa lost in killed, beside its commander, 
Lieutenants Logan, Hazlett, McMillen, and Shanklin — all valua- 
ble officers. Lieut. A. E. Holmes was wounded. On the death 
of the commander, Capt. Warren C. Jones took charge of the 
regiment and led it through the rest of the battle. 

The Thirty-fifth Iowa was also engaged at Pleasant Hill, but on 
a different part of the field. Its Colonel, S. G. Hill, led the brigade 
in Mower's division of which it was a part, and Lt.-Col. Keeler 
led the regiment. Only a few days before, the command had 
achieved a splendid and almost bloodless success in the prompt 



282 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

capture of Henderson's Hill. Again at Pleasant Hill it was 
thrown to the front and shared the hard fighting and the victory 
of the day. Capt. Henry Blanck was killed and Lieut. Dugan 
mortally wounded, as were many of the privates. 

Gen. Banks did not realize that his troops had won a victory at 
Pleasant Hill and that the Rebels were checked. Apparently 
frightened by the disaster at Sabine Cross Roads, and by the fierce 
opposition at Pleasant Hill, he sounded the grand retreat — a 
retreat full of hardships and some fighting on the way, and that 
did not stop short of the Mississippi river. 

In one of the conflicts on the way, called the fight of the 
" Yellow Bayou, v the Thirty-fifth Iowa lost nearly 40 of its 
numbers. Among the killed were Capt. Burmeister and young 
Frederick Hill, son of Col. S. Gr. Hill, commanding brigade. 
The latter fell dead at his father's side, pierced through the head 
by a bullet. Later, at Nashville, the father, too, laid down his 
life for his country. 

At Pleasant Hill, one-half of the killed and wounded had 
fallen to Shaw's Iron brigade. The bravery and skill of Col. 
Shaw in holding that force to the front as he did, was appreci- 
ated by the country; but, among the general officers of Banks's 
army there sprang up at once a feeling of envy and hatred of 
the man whose troops saved the army from defeat. They deter- 
mined on his destruction. Injudiciously he gave them a basis to 
work on. In a letter to a public journal, printed under his own 
name, he published several of the officers of Banks's army as 
incompetent and drunken imbeciles on that day of Pleasant Hill. 
There were many reasons for believing that he stated the simple 
fact. But he stirred up an awful hornet's nest of sting and hate. 
Technically, he had transgressed the military law in printing his 
letter. Not less than twenty-five of Banks's officers, as well as 
Banks himself, joined in charges against the fighting colonel. 
They did not stop with citing this violation of law in the print- 
ing of the letter. They charged Shaw with incompetency, with 
fear, with cowardice, with ordering his men to run, while terror 
had seized upon himself. The Secretary of War accepted these 
outrageous falsehoods, and Col. Shaw was dismissed the army in 



IOWA IN THE KED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 283 

disgrace. That was his reward for gallantry at Pleasant Hill ! 
Gen. A. J. Smith, Shaw's corps commander, who witnessed 
his gallantry and his perfect obedience of orders at Pleasant Hill, 
testified to it all in an official letter. Shaw demanded that this 
justification be printed in the official military journal that had 
contained the order of dismissal. The Secretary of War refused 
it, and yet knew that Shaw had been dismissed without even a 
hearing. 

Shortly, however, the authorities at Washington, including 
the President, realized that an outrage had been committed on a 
gallant and meritorious officer. On December 23d, 1865, the 
order of dismissal was revoked, and Col. Shaw was given an hon- 
orable discharge from the service, to date from the 16th day of 
the previous November, the date on which his noble old regi- 
ment had left the service.* 

*It was not an uncommon belief that Shaw's peremptory dismissal 
without a trial, was to preclude the possibility of his proving the (ruth of 
the charges he had made in the newspapers. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

STEELE'S MARCH ON CAMDEN— BATTLES OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

Spring of 1864. 

In accordance with the general plan for co-operation with Gen. 
Banks, in the Red river expedition, Steele's army, known as the 
Seventh army corps, and 7,000 strong, marched out of Little 
Rock in the direction of Shreveport, a hundred miles away. 
It was the 23d of March, 1864. About the same time, another 
force, 5,000 strong, under command of Gen. Thayer, left Fort 
Smith witli a view of uniting with Steele's column at Arkadel- 
phia. Owing to swollen streams and bad roads, Thayer's column 
failed to come up, and Steele marched on without it. It was on 
hand, however, in time for some of the battles of the campaign. 

There were with Steele some of Iowa's most excellent regi- 
ments; notably, the Eighteenth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third, 
Thirty-sixth, and Fortieth infantry, and First cavalry. The 
greater number of these Iowa men had marched with Steele from 
Helena in the previous autumn, in his successful campaign 
against Little Rock. Brig. Gen. Samuel A. Rice of Iowa had 
commanded the division, and the capture of the Arkansas capital 
with its arsenal, stores, etc.,*had been a brilliant exploit. Many 
of the troops had been stricken down with sickness in the fear- 
fully unhealthy hole of Helena, and hundreds of them fell by 
the wayside from exhaustion in the arduous march to Little 
Rock. But after a winter's partial rest and recuperation, the 
command was willing and anxious to be again led against the 
enemy. 

In blissful ignorance of what was happening to Gen. Banks 
on the Red river, the troops under Steele pushed along in the 
direction of Shreveport, meeting with heavy resistance at every 

(284) 



Steele's march on - camden. 285 

river crossing and at every swamp. The bridges were usually 
destroyed in advance of them, and the roads through the desolate 
and unhealthy section were horrible. 

Gen. Rice, in this movement, commanded the First brigade of 
the Third division, comprising the Twenty-ninth and Thirty- 
third Iowa, Fiftieth Indiana, and Ninth Wisconsin infantry 
regiments. The Thirty-sixth Iowa, under Col. Kittredge, was, 
with the Seventy-seventh Ohio and Forty-third Indiana, in 
McClean's Second brigade of the Third division. It was the 
second largest regiment of the entire force. The Fortieth Iowa, 
led by Col. Garrett, was in Englemann's brigade of the Third 
division and had as brigade comrades the Twenty-seventh Wis- 
consin and the Forty-third Illinois infantry. 

The Eighteenth Iowa, under Capt. Duncan, was in Col. Ed- 
wards's First brigade of Thayer's division. This regiment had 
passed a horrible winter, doing hard duty on poor rations, and 
making the severest marches through mud and snow in mid- 
winter, and without shelter of any kind. Spite of all their 
past sufferings, these heroic men were, patriotically and with- 
out a murmur, marching to new fatigues, new dangers, and hard 
fighting. 

What was true of the Eighteenth Iowa, as to that winter's 
suffering, was true of other regiments of Steele's command. In 
fact, Valley Forge in the Revolution scarcely witnessed more 
deprivations — more suffering, and more patriotism, than that of 
numerous of the Iowa regiments in that winter of 1863-1864 
in Arkansas. Now, the spring had come, and with new hopes 
the column left Little Rock. 

TERRE NOIR BAYOU. 

The first opposition met with, of real importance, was near 
the Terre Noir bayou, where the rear guard, under Col. Thos. 
H. Benton, Jr., with the Twenty-ninth Iowa, was attacked by 
Shelby's cavalry. Shelby had counted without his host, for 
spite of courageous fighting, and a desperate charge on his part, 
Col. Benton's Iowa men were able to give him a rather severe 
thrashing. 



286 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

The Fiftieth Indiana infantry, too, had come up in the nick 
of time, and, directed by Gen. Rice, helped to chase Shelby out 
of the way. The Twenty-ninth lost, in the affair, 27 in killed, 
wounded and missing. Among the wounded were Lieutenants 
John S. Miller, Allen J. Chantry, John McFarland, and Robert 
R. Kirkpatrick. This was on the 2d of April. 

ELKIN'S FORD. 

Two days afterward, on April 4, a much severer contest took 
place at a point known as " Elkin's Ford," on the Little Mis- 
souri. A part of McClean's brigade, the Thirty-sixth Iowa 
under Lt.-Col. Drake, the Forty-third Indiana under Maj. Nor- 
ris, and Lieut. Peetz's Missouri battery had been sent in advance 
to secure the passage over the river. 

Lt.-Col. Drake, with three companies of the Forty-third In- 
diana, and as many companies from his own regiment, together 
with the battery, was placed on the farther side of the river. 
Here they were attacked by a strong rebel force at 6 o'clock in 
the morning. The pickets, composed of a part of the First 
Iowa cavalry, were rapidly driven in and a determined effort 
made to turn Drake's left flank. The Rebels were driven back 
through an orchard and into a wood, but immediately, and 
before re-enforcements could get up to Drake's feeble command, 
they vigorously attacked his right flank. This charge, too, by 
dint of hard fighting and good maneuvering on the part of 
Drake and his 300 men, was held in check. At the same time 
the enemy opened with four field pieces against the union line. 
Peetz's battery gave them back as much as they sent, though 
the engagement continued for another hour. 

It was a tough struggle for the little band of men fighting 
Marmaduke with his 2,000 soldiers. Once, after a momentary 
pause, Marmaduke prepared for a charge, by placing artillery at 
front and right and left, in position to rake the woods, and up 
and down Drake's lines, with solid shot and canister. In a few 
moments the ball opened, and to the sound of their rapidly 
firing guns, the Rebels made the charge along the whole line. 
Drake's men resisted as long as possible, giving ground only 



Steele's march on camden. - 287 

inch by inch, until the left gave way and fell back on Col. Kit- 
redge's six companies of the Thirty -sixth Iowa. These came up 
in time to hurl the yelling, half-victorious Rebels back. On 
Drake's right, his men held their ground and fought till the 
enemy were repulsed. Gen. Rice came to the front with the 
Twenty-ninth Iowa and Ninth Wisconsin, but too late to be of 
service. He was in time, however, to receive a slight wound in 
the head from a rebel grape shot. 

This was pre-eminently Lt.-Col. Drake's battle, and he and 
his brave subordinates and soldiers fought it gallantly. " Too 
much praise cannot be given Col. Drake for his distinguished 
gallantry and determined courage in this contest," says the brig- 
ade commander in his report. Col. Kittredge, too, and Maj. Nor- 
ris and Lieut. Peetz of the battery, all received the deserved 
thanks of the commander. 

Drake lost some 31 men in killed and wounded out of his little 
band. Eleven of these were from the First Iowa cavalry. Lieut. 
Dow of the First cavalry was slightly wounded. Drake men- 
tions the name of each one of his company officers as worthy of 
high commendation for bravery, and his two orderlies, George 
Barr and Henry J. Clingfield of the First cavalry are referred to 
as good and brave soldiers. The brigade commander also men- 
tioned for gallantry Col. C. W. Kittredge, Lt.-Col. Drake and 
Capt. W. E. Whitredge. 

Elkin's Ford was a hint to Price's and Marmaduke's men, who 
were hanging about the flanks of Steele's army, that their 
obstructing process was one of great danger; yet before another 
week they were drawn up in line of battle across the way of the 
advancing column at Prairie d" 1 Anne. Engelmann's brigade 
found the Rebels in force at this place at 4 o'clock of Sunday 
afternoon, April the 10th, 1864. A force of rebel skirmishers 
were found waiting at the edge of the big prairie, while on the 
ridge behind, running east and west, a large force of rebel cav- 
alry, with some artillery, was deployed as if for battle. 

Col. Engelmann immediately brought forward an Illinois bat- 
tery, and placing it in position, ordered the Fortieth Iowa, Col. 
Garrett, to the right of it, and the Forty-third Illinois to the 



288 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

left, with the Twenty-seventh Wisconsin brought up as a 
reserve. Shortly, the two first regiments were deployed as 
skirmishers and pushed on to the second ridge. The Forty- 
third got there first, but closely followed by the Fortieth Iowa. 
A fire of rebel artillery was at once opened on the line, but it 
was steadily advanced, and with it came Rice's brigade to its left 
and a cavalry force to its right. Darkness now came on, but 
skirmishing and artillery firing were kept up along the line till 
10 o'clock in the night, when suddenly the Rebels made a charge 
on a union battery. It was met by the Fortieth Iowa and the 
Twenty-seventh Wisconsin, together with Vaughn's battery. It 
asted but a few minutes, and the Rebels were sent flying for the 
night. 

The union line lay down in ranks and slept as best they could 
on the open prairie, without fires, and the night cold and frosty. 
Morning brought a clear field and the Rebels gone. The 
Fortieth had lost a number of men in the engagement, and 
among the wounded, though slightly, were Lieutenants Ward 
and Amos. Maj. S. G. Smith led the skirmishers at Prairie d r 
Anne, assisted by Lieut. Edmundson. 

It was at Prairie d' Anne that Gen. Steele first heard rumors 
of the utter defeat and failure that had overtaken Banks's col- 
umn on the Red river. Why he did not immediately turn and 
march his army out of the trap that was now preparing for him, 
is a matter of astonishment. Instead of retreating, when there 
was nothing but danger and possible disaster in advancing, he 
simply deflected from his course a little, and marched his army 
on, fighting by the way, to the town of Camden. Here, with 
abundant news of the disaster to Banks, he delayed two weeks, 
doing little else apparently than furnishing wagon trains and 
supplies to the Rebels, now active and operating in every direc- 
tion on front, flank and rear. 

Once, before reaching Camden, and near the village of 
Moscow, his column was attacked in rear. Col. Edwards of 
Iowa happened to be there with his brigade, including some 
Arkansas regiments, the Second Indiana battery, and the 
Eighteenth Iowa infantry. Capt. Duncan led the Iowa boys, 



STEELE S MAKCH ON CAMDEN. 289 

and this regiment, with the battery, fought the Rebels, though 
several times outnumbered by them, and held them in check till 
the division came up to the front. The regiment was engaged 
several hours, but its loss, fortunately, was small. One of its cap- 
tains, J. K. Morey, was complimented for bravery in the action, 
while acting on the brigade staff as assistant adjutant general. 

During the stay at Camden, the soldiers suffered for want of 
proper rations — making what had the appearance of a rest 
really worse than the march. There was, too, a universal feel- 
ing of uneasiness among the men. Something, nobody knew 
what, was about to happen, and everybody realized that Steele's 
army was probably in a very tight place. It was, in fact, in a 
strange section of country, far from its base, without food and 
very nearly surrounded by an enemy daily increasing in numbers. 
It was a sorry and disquieting outlook. Large details were made 
daily to hunt forage and to run country mills and keep them 
grinding corn for the army, while all the time the wagon trains 
with supplies were being lost by capture and the enemy con- 
stantly becoming bolder and more dangerous. 

POISON SPRINGS. 

On the 18th of April, one of the trains sent out for forage 
met with a dreadful mishap and a sad loss of heroic lives. This 
train, guarded by a regiment of Kansas colored troops under 
Col. Williams, was some fifteen miles from the town. On being 
threatened by the Rebels, an additional guard, consisting of the 
Eighteenth Iowa infantry and a section of the Second Indiana 
battery, was sent to its aid. The colored regiment was placed 
in front of the train and the Iowa regiment at its rear. A 
couple of hundred cavalrymen also formed part of the escort. 

Suddenly, like a clap of thunder, the whole force, train, men 
and all, were attacked by a rebel column supposed to be 6,000 
strong. In the first shock, the colored regiment at the head of 
the train, though fighting bravely, were overwhelmed and being 
shot down and murdered. They gave way and retreated in 
disorder. 

On came the yelling Rebels against the Eighteenth Iowa, 
I.W.T.-19 



290 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

hoping to overwhelm and destroy them in the same way. Inch 
by inch they, too, fell back, but fighting so stubbornly as to 
stretch hundreds of the enemy dead on the grass. With a terri- 
ble desperation, as determined to have that train as though 
their existence depended upon it, the Rebels continued to fight 
on over the dead bodies of their comrades. Rod by rod, the raeu 
of the Eighteenth Iowa were being driven back, resisting not 
less than seven charges. Then seeing themselves surrounded 
and about to be lost, they fixed their bayonets and with a rush 
cut their way through the rebel line. 

Of course the train was lost, but had the Eighteenth Iowa 
never fired another gun, its heroic fight for the forage train at 
Poison Springs would entitle its name to be written high on 
Iowa's scroll of honor.* 

The regiment got back to Camden with a loss of some 80 men. 
All of its officers and men had been heroes. Capt. Thomas 
Blanchard, though wounded, seized the colors and rallied the 
men about them under a heavy fire. Captains Clover, Stonaker 
and Conaway, with Sergeants Bowers, Oleson, Dean, Mardis, 
Bullock and Kirkpatrick, were all mentioned for gallantry. 

Who the commander was that could send a great forage train 
out among the enemy, guarded by only a few hundred inexper- 
ienced colored soldiers, does not appear. The act was on a par, 
however, with many other acts of this campaign of mud, blun- 
der, and supreme heroism. Possibly had Banks, around on the 
Red river, had more competent commanders on his expedition, 
and fewer dandies and drunkards, he would not have failed, and 
left Steele's forces to wander about aimless and surrounded in 
an enemy's country. Every hour that Steele was now staying 
in Camden was a sacrifice of brave soldiers' lives. 

*In this onslaught, many of* the colored troops were butchered in cold 
blood and the colored servants of captured officers were shot down before 
their eyes. All protest against this southern barbarism was met with 
threats of similar fate to the officers themselves. Some of our private 
soldiers were killed after surrender, because they had been captured " fight- 
ing with the d— d niggers." 



Steele's makch osr camden". 291 



MARK'S MILLS. 



Pour days after the loss of the train at Poison Springs another 
large train of 240 wagons was started out, this time for Pine 
Bluff, to bring supplies. McClean's brigade and a small body of 
cavalry formed the escort. As McClean and the other colonels 
were not able for duty, and possibly saw little honor in being 
slaughtered merely in defense of a lot of wagons and mules, Lt.- 
Col. Drake was put in command of the force. Maj. Hamilton of 
Ottumwa went in command of the Thirty-sixth Iowa, Maj. 
Norris of the Forty-third Indiana, Capt. McCormack of the 
Seventy-seventh Ohio, Maj. McAulley of the cavalry, and Lieut. 
Peetz of the battery. 

The roads were simply horrible — almost impassable, and in 
many places had to be corduroyed before a single wagon could 
cross. Toiling along in the mud and mire of Moro swamp, 
the train and escort were attacked by 6,000 Rebels in the early 
morning of the 25th of April. Lt.-Col. Drake was not wholly 
unprepared. He had suspected mischief every step of the way, 
and his little band of cavalry had been flying in all direc- 
tions guarding against surprise. Special precautions had been 
taken the night of the 24th, as the train had to halt while the 
pioneers worked the whole night through, endeavoring to make 
the road through the muddy bottom passable. A train of two 
or three hundred heavy army wagons, with six mule teams to 
each wagon, is no light thing to march with, in a strange country, 
over wretched roads, and with a mounted and desperate enemy 
prowling by thousands on right, left and in front, only waiting 
a favorable moment — an ambush — bridgeless stream, or a dark 
night, to pounce on the train and capture or destroy its escort. 

And yet it was by means of such wagon trains that the armies 
of the West and South were usually supplied, when away from 
their base of operations. No greater heroism ever was displayed 
in battle — not in the fierce bayonet charge, nor in the storming 
of rebel forts, than was displayed a thousand times during the 
war by small detachments of men fighting, often hand to hand, 
and always against superior numbers, in defense of the supply 



292 IOWA IN WAR TEMES. 

trains of the army. To lose a train was to leave the arm}' to 
starve — to invite defeat and disaster. Bullets were not so neces- 
sary as "hard tack 1 ' and bacon, and the fights in defense of the 
wagon trains in the war, though unrecorded, were not less heroic 
than many of the fiercest battles. 

Lt.-Col. Drake must have felt himself complimented on 
being selected by Gen. Steele to take a train several miles long 
back to the Arkansas river, for food for his army. His escort 
however, was far too small. Whether Steele feared to spare 
more men from the front, or whether it was one of the usual 
blunders of that campaign, is not clear. It is only certain that 
Drake was sent out with bare 1,600 men, to guard a train several 
miles in length and protect it on the move, against a force of 
6,000 strong. 

At daylight of the 25th, the long train started on its way out 
of Moro swamp. The Forty-third Indiana and a section of artil- 
lery marched ahead. The Seventy-seventh Ohio and another 
section of artillery followed behind, while Maj. Hamilton, with 
his Thirty-sixth Iowa, marched along the flanks of the train. 
They had not proceeded far, when the advance ran on to a line of 
rebel skirmishers, on a ridge known as the "Red Lands," at the 
junction of the Warren and Camden roads. Drake, who was 
nearly at the rear of the train, hurried to the front, bringing 
with him the Thirty-sixth Iowa and some detached companies of 
the Forty-third Indiana. All the troops were ordered to double- 
quick to the front, and good skirmish lines were scarcely engaged 
before two whole brigades of Rebels made a charge on the Forty- 
third Indiana. They were met with a shout and a blaze of 
musketry that drove them from the rear. Hamilton, with his 
men, was ordered to support the advance, and was barely in posi- 
tion when the enemy started on a second charge. The Forty- 
third Indiana now opened its line to right and left a little, to 
make room for the guns shotted with grape and canister, quietly 
waiting the Rebels' approach. All at once they came in a 
storming column, and at seventy-five yards the battery unloosed 
its fire, while the Thirty-sixth Iowa, rising from where it lay in 
line, poured another hot fire into the compact rebel columns. 




GENERAL F. M. DRAKE. 



Steele's march on camden. 293 

They staggered, halted and fell back, leaving many dead and 
wounded, but only to rally and to charge again. They knew 
their own numbers, and the weakness of the union column. 
For some time the conflict raged, with the Indiana regiment, the 
Iowa regiment, and the battery bearing all the brunt of the 
battle. The Seventy-seventh Ohio had not yet reached the front, 
and Drake, while placing some of the companies in position for 
a charge, was shot down, almost mortally wounded. Soon other 
rebel regiments and brigades were seen crowding to the front, 
but the Iowa and Indiana men, though discouraged and driven 
back, fought single-handed and individually till their cartridge 
boxes were empty. 

Surrounded, outnumbered, out of ammunition, and many of 
their comrades stretched on the field, what was there to do? 
The story is soon told. They surrendered. The train for which 
they had fought so gallantly was lost. Only 150 of the entire 
command escaped. Eight to nine hundred dead and wounded 
lay upon the battle field, half of whom were Rebels and many 
were negroes, train followers, etc., whom the Rebels, with the 
atrocity of devils, inhumanly butchered. Col. Drake and Maj. 
Hamilton were captured with the rest, but Drake, on account of 
his wounds, was shortly paroled. Maj. Hamilton and the rest of 
the captured column, among whom were Chaplain Hare, Surgeons 
Strong and Smith, and the gallant and accomplished Adjt. 
Mahon, were marched off to Tyler, in Texas, where they endured, 
for long and weary months, the sufferings of horrible rebel 
prisons. Many of the men sickened and died, or, as in. other 
southern prisons, simply starved to death. Maj. Hamilton 
escaped, at last, and, after enduring numberless fatigues and 
sufferings, reached the union lines. Captains Miller and Lam- 
bert who escaped with him reached home only in time to die. 

About 300 of Drake's command were killed or wounded. 
Among the killed was Lieut. John May of the Thirty-sixth, 
while Lieut. John A. Hurlbut was severely wounded, and Lieut. 
John N. Wright and Capt. John M. Porter slightly. Lt.-Col. 
Drake's wounds crippled him for life. Maj . Hamilton's action 
on the field was noted for great coolness and courage. 



294 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

il Drake," says Horace Greeley, speaking of this battle, " made 
superhuman efiorts, and was everywhere at the point of danger." 
No wonder that later, at the suggestion of his brother officers 
and superiors, he was breveted brigadier general for services. 
He had earned his star. Col. Drake, in his report of the battle, 
highly complimented the officers and men of his command. 
Some of them were staff officers from other commands who 
happened to be with the escort on their way to Little Rock. 
Among them was Capt. Townsend, whom Drake lamented as a 
brave and gallant officer. This fight by Moro swamp is of tenest 
known as the battle of Mark's Mills. 

BATTLE OF JENKINS' FERRY. 

The disaster of Mark's Mills led the Rebels into boasting that 
now Steele's whole army would be destroyed. Its early capture 
was considered by them a certainty. They forgot one important 
factor— the valor of Steele's soldiers. Gen. Steele now saw, 
however, that an early retreat from Camden was imperative, and 
at " taps " of the night of April 26th, the soldiers were quietly, 
but quickly, marched out of the town over the Washita river, 
and started on the miserable retreat to Little Rock — a retreat, the 
importance of which was, at the time, not realized, so much was 
the country excited over the great battles under Grant in the 
East, and Sherman fighting for Atlanta. 

Kirby Smith's whole army having nearly destroyed Banks's 
column on the Red river, was now free to concentrate with Gen. 
Price and pounce on the retreating, half-starved troops of Gen. 
Steele. A small force had been left in front, or rather behind 
Banks's column, to deceive him, and the remainder of the 
victorious Rebels were now here in hot pursuit of Steele. In 
spite of hard and forced marching they were overtaken in 
three days. 

On the evening of the 29th of April, Engelmann's brigade, 
guarding the rear of Steele's army, felt the pursuers on its 
heels. It was at the low bluffs bordering the bottom of the 
Saline river, and near to the crossing known as Jenkins' Ferry. 
Steele had on that day made a quick, well-managed Hank 



Steele's march on camden. 295 

movement, to reach the Saline river, intending to put that 
stream as a barrier between himself and the enemy. His army- 
commenced crossing that night on a pontoon bridge, but the 
long trains, the perfectly horrible roads, the beating rain, the 
darkness, the starving teams, and the almost starving soldiers, 
made the movement hard and slow. 

Steele saw that he was too late. The army and the trains 
could not be over by daylight, and a hard battle with over- 
powering numbers was imminent. That night, at 2 o'clock, he 
sent for Gen. Samuel A. Rice to meet him at his quarters in 
Mrs. Jenkins's log cabin near the ferry. " The enemy," said 
he to Rice, " will attack us at daylight, and I look to you to 
hold them in check until the remainder of the army can get 
across on the pontoon. 1 ' 

The Thirty-third Iowa, of Rice's brigade, had already been 
sent back to the rear to remain on picket with Engelmann 
till daylight. All that night, men and teams floundered along 
in the storm and mud and darkness, trying to get over the 
river. The whole Saline bottom, some two miles wide, and 
full of dense timber, was overflowed, and like an interminable 
swamp. Where there was no water, there was mud, and the 
darkness was utter, save where an occasional friendly flash of 
lightning revealed to the pickets a strong foe, close by, waiting 
on the daylight. 

It was a perilous situation, for when daylight came, the army 
and trains were not half over the river. After daylight that 
morning, the picket men of the Thirty-third saw a whole brig- 
ade of Rebels in full sight, quietly and in perfect line marching 
to their left. The pickets were not seen by the Rebels, and dis- 
cretion bade them not to fire. Gen. Rice rode to the rear, to see 
his hard-worked, half-famished regiment, the Thirty-third Iowa, 
and in an effort to bring them back a little from their too 
advanced position, wakened the wrath of the enemy, who immed- 
iately attacked with skirmishers. Another regiment of his brig- 
ade, the Fiftieth Indiana, was hurried up to the left of the Thirty- 
third Iowa, and the remainder of his brigade formed a new line 
half a mile farther back. To this second line, the Thirty-third 



296 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

and the Fiftieth retired. The Thirty-third having been on duty 
all night in the rain, and without fires, was permitted to fall 
back a little to prepare some breakfast, a task quickly done, as 
the men's haversacks contained absolutely nothing more than a 
little black coffee. Even that was scarcely prepared before fresh 
skirmishing commenced, and the regiment was hurried back into 
line, this time to the left of the brigade. 

They were scarcely in position, when, with a vigorous assault 
from the enemy, the battle of Jenkins' Ferry commenced. Cox's 
creek is a little stream coming in through the bottom at nearly 
right angles to the river. This creek was to Rice's right, and 
on its opposite side and on his right flank, the first attack was 
made by the enemy on two companies of the Twenty-Ninth 
Iowa, and a detachment of Engelmann's brigade that happened 
to be there. The attack there was light, and a feint, to cover the 
severe assault on the Thirty-third Iowa and the Fiftieth Indiana at 
the left. Col. Mackey was leading the Thirty-third, and the regi- 
ment met the shock like veterans; but the attacking force was too 
stroug, and the left of the regiment fell back some 250 yards, the 
enemy having got on the left flank and rear. Immediately Rice led 
the Twelfth Kansas infantry up to the position yielded, and the 
Kansas men went in with a yell. The ground was regained. 
The Thirty-third not only got back on its line, but the whole 
brigade advanced 300 yards. 

All this time, the Twenty-ninth Iowa and the Ninth Wiscon- 
sin had been firing on the right until their ammunition boxes 
were nearly empty; and, worst of all, the enemy, again concen- 
trating his forces there, was rapidly flanking them and pouriug 
a raking enfilading fire into that part of the line. Another 
Kansas regiment was hurried to the front to support this right 
wing; it was the Second colored, and its coming checked the 
rebel fire. Other regiments were sent to the left also, and one 
more to the right; and at that moment the Rebels came on to the 
right in a furious charge, accompanied by a few rapid shots from 
a section of artillery. 

The struggle lasted some time, when the enemy's line fell 
back, and the colored regiment, with the Twenty ninth Iowa, 



Steele's makch on camden. 297 

charged and took his guns. It was a brave struggle, this capture 
of the guns, and brought just honor to both regiments. With 
the capture of this battery, and the repulse of this attack on the 
right, there came a pause in the battle. It was only a lull in the 
storm, for Steele's men had barely replenished their cartridge 
boxes, when the enemy, after a little feinting on the right, 
rushed on in a fresh assault at the left. 

Here the Thirty-third Iowa, part of the Fortieth Iowa, the 
Fiftieth Indiana, the Twelfth Kansas, and a part of the Second 
brigade, stood in the mud and water and did such fighting as 
had never been seen in Arkansas. Every man standing there in 
the mud and water, firing his two hundred rounds that day, 
realized that for their line to break, was to lose the whole of 
Steele's army. Nobody waited now for orders. Every man 
loaded and fired as fast as he could, regardless of the comrades 
dropping beside him in death, or moaning with their terrible 
wounds. Only to cool their heated muskets in the water at their 
feet, did the men ever pause in the steady constant fire of that 
fierce battle. 

There was no sound of cannon. No artillery, except the cap- 
tured battery, had been used, but there was a crashing of mus- 
ketry that came like the falling of some mighty forest. Stand- 
ing there in the mud and water, facing death, and desperately 
fighting, the privates in the ranks were saving Steele's army. 
Not quite 4,000 of the army were engaged ; many were with the 
artillery across the river. The greater part of Thayer's brigade 
were not engaged at all. The Rebels were three, if not five, to 
one against them. There was, possibly, not a battle in the whole 
war, where more individual heroism was displayed than was 
shown by the subordinates and privates of Steele's army, fight- 
ing there in the swamps and woods at Jenkins's Ferry. 

Owing to the re-enforcing regiments reaching the field fyeing 
led into position by Gen. Rice, that able officer was virtually in 
command of the whole. It was fortunate, for Rice was a cool, 
courageous and competent commander. Steele trusted him; 
better, his own men trusted him. Every moment saw him in 
the post of danger, encouraging the men, or leading them into 



298 IOWA IN WAK TIMES. 

better positions. He was everywhere in the battle swamp, until, 
shot down by a minie-ball, he was borne from the field and sent 
home to die. Gen. Rice was taken from the field by a young officer 
of his staff who had himself been noticeable for gallantry in the 
thickest of the battle — coolly riding up and down the lines, plac- 
ing regiments and companies as directed, and never for a moment 
away from the post of duty and danger. His qualities as a gallant 
young officer soon brought him deserved promotion to the staff 
of Gen. Steele. This was Maj. John F. Lacey, of Oskaloosa. 

Gen. Rice's place was immediately taken by Col. Salomon, of 
the Ninth Wisconsin. Steadily the men stuck to the fierce 
work. There was no yielding, spite of superior numbers. 
Hunger and thirst, and weariness and danger were forgotten. 
The brave men only remembered that they were there to hold 
that line, and they held it. Every assault was repulsed, every 
advance of the enemy driven back. Three flags, a battery and 
numerous prisoners had been captured. The swamp was full 
of the rebel slain, and his force was driven back nearly to the 
bluffs. 

Noon came, and with it a pause in the conflict. Knowing 
that heav} r re-enforcements would reach the Rebels in an hour, 
Steele wisely ordered the little army to withdraw across the river. 
Leisurely and unpursued, the tired heroes, begrimed with mud, 
powder and blood, crossed the stream and camped close by on 
the other side. 

The battle was over, and Steele's army, by the supreme hero- 
ism of its men, had saved itself. The sacrifice to the lists of 
dead and wounded was large for so small a force. Iowa, especi- 
ally, lost heavily in the battle. That afternoon, the rebel com- 
mander sent in a flag of truce, to ask permission to bury his 
dead and care for the wounded. The act proved his recognition 
of a lost battle. Three of his generals and many lesser officers 
laid down their lives in the attack. Of subordinates and privates 
he probably lost not less than 1,500. The losses in one of his 
divisions (Walker's) was never reported. Our own loss was 
proportionately large. 

Col. Garrett, who, with only a hundred of his Fortieth Iowa 



Steele's march on camden. 299 

fought long and gallantly on the extreme left, lost almost every 
other man killed or wounded. The companies of the Fortieth 
Iowa on the right also fought gallantly, but lost fewer men. 
These fierce fighting companies of the Fortieth were B, E, H, K 
and G, led by Captains Campbell and Sennett, and Lieutenants 
Amos and Christie and Sergt. Baird; Maj. Smith commanded their 
skirmishers, aided by Lieut. Edmundson. Sergt. Baird was severely 
wounded, and was complimented by Col. Garrett for bravery, as 
was Color-bearer Mortimer W. Nelson — "as brave a man as ever 
bore a flag," says the colonel. Color-guards Davis and Bare 
were both wounded; noble Sergt. Simmons, shot in the breast and 
dying, heard that the foe were beaten, waved his hand, and with 
a smile on his lips, breathed his last. 

Col. Benton's Twenty-ninth Iowa had signalized itself for its 
hard fighting at the right and center, and in connection with the 
Second Kansas, for its capture of the rebel battery. The 
regiment lost 108 in killed, wounded and missing — among 
them three commissioned officers. Maj. Shoemaker and Adjt. 
Lyman received the special thanks of Col. Benton for distin- 
guished gallantry. 

The Thirty-third Iowa, led by Col. Mackey until he was 
severely wounded in the arm, lost 123, including six offi- 
cers wounded. On Col. Mackey's leaving the front, the 
command of the regiment fell to Capt. Boydston, who 
continued with it in the engagement, and brought it from the 
field with honor. Col. Mackey, in his report, declared that all 
his officers and men did their duty in the battle, but he gives no 
special names, not even the names of the wounded officers. They 
were himself, Capt. A. J. Comstock, Lieutenants 0. J. Kindig and 
Wilson W. Garmo. Lieut. Thomas R. Conner was killed and 
Capt. P. P. Totten died of his wounds. Braver and better officers 
than the wounded and the killed of the Thirty-third never drew 
sword on battle field. 

The Rebels had the advantage of fighting in massed lines in 
the battle. Their greater number permitted this, but it involved 
great loss, as almost every union bullet would likely hit some 
one in that crowded field. When a regiment would fail of 



300 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

ammunition, they simply would send in a new regiment, whereas 
on the union side, the two single lines at the front kept their 
places and had ammunition carried to them by cavalrymen of 
the general's body-guard. The front line would fire its supply 
lie down and let the rear line pass over it, re-fill its boxes 
and pass to the front again over the other line lying down for 
the same purpose. By this means, a steady, constant . fire 
was kept up throughout the battle. 

In three days, the worn, weary, half starved men of Gen. 
Steele's army reached Little Rock. The miserable Camden cam- 
paign was finished. After crossing the river, a large part of the 
trains and stores had been destroyed. The mud and mire, and 
starvation of man and beast, made the destruction a necessity. 

One of the most lamentable results of the battle at Jenkins 1 
Ferry was the wounding of Gen. Rice. He was one of the most 
popular and best beloved men of the state. He was attorney 
general of Iowa when he entered the army, and there was no post 
to which he might not aspire. He was recognized as cool- 
headed, patriotic, intensely so, brave and very able. He was 
liked in his own command, and its interests and his own he 
made identical. There were great hopes for Rice's promotion 
and greater usefulness among those who knew him best. He 
had commenced at the lowest round of the ladder in life, and by 
his own energy and ability had won position and universal esteem 
in his state. Not one supposed the wound, though severe, 
would prove fatal. He was shot in the foot, a part of his spur 
being driven into the wound. He lived and suffered some weeks, 
and died among his family and friends at home. His life was 
one of the many sacrifices for the victory on the Saline river. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 
Summer of 1864. 

Fifteen regiments of Iowa infantry took part in the battles 
that resulted in the capture of the Richmond of the Southwest. 

Atlanta was more than a Richmond. It was of more impor- 
tance every way. It was by nature ten times as well fortified. 
It was better fortified by man, too. It was the industrial center 
of the South. War material was made there in great quantities. 
To capture it would be like capturing the blood and the iron 
center of the South. It was the heart of the South. It was 
to be protected accordingly. 

The winter of 1863-4 saw Grant's armies the victors of Chat- 
tanooga, resting on the Tennessee river with Chattanooga for a 
base, though Gen. Grant himself had his headquarters back at 
the city of Nashville. That spring, Gen. Grant was called east to 
receive the command of the armies of the United States, and on 
the 18th of March, 1864, Gen. Sherman assumed command as 
Grant's successor in the West. 

The two generals had met in Nashville and concluded on a 
plan of operations that was to result in the fiercest campaigns of 
the war, and to embrace all the armies of the Union. About 
May day, Grant was to move forward from the Rapidan and 
attack Lee's army in Virginia. At the same time Gen. Sherman 
was to concentrate his entire forces at Ringgold, in front of 
Chattanooga, on the Tennessee, and move against the rebel 
army protecting Atlanta. 

By the 7th of May, Sherman's three armies, led by McPher- 
son, Schofield and Thomas, marched to the front near Ringgold. 
They were the armies of the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Cum- 

f3on 



302 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

berland, named for the rivers along which they had done so 
much hard fighting. Besides the famous commanders already 
mentioned, there were leaders in that army such as Logan and 
Slocum, Hooker and Dodge and Corse, Hazen, Butterfield. 
Stanley and Davis, with numbers of lesser commanders who 
were to earn lasting fame in the campaign before them. Many 
of Iowa's best fighting men led brigades and regiments. 

Sherman had 100,000 soldiers and 254 cannon. Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston, in command of the rebel army at his front, mus- 
tered perhaps 60,000 men, and as much artillery as did Sherman. 
But Johnston had, as aids and bulwarks, the rugged mountains 
of northern Georgia, the rapid rivers, the deep and almost unex- 
plored forests, deep defiles and long stretches of country so easily 
obstructed as to make a single soldier the equal of three foe men. 
A strong, valorous army, well led, and protected as Johnston's 
army was by rude nature, might well hope to hold a city a hun- 
dred miles in its rear safe from all invaders. No wonder the 
South thought Atlanta invincible. 

Over the gates of Calais was written in letters of brass, " When 
the French besiege Calais, iron and lead will swim like cork." 
The South might have had a similar inscription above the gates 
of Atlanta, so certain did it seem to them that no northern army 
could ever reach it, besiege it, and take it. 

Sherman found Johnston's army in front of Dalton and occu- 
pying the rocky heights of Taylor's Ridge and Buzzard's Roost 
Gap, the only pass near there. The ridge front at Dalton was a 
formidable wall of rock, five hundred feet high, and the moun- 
tain extended for mapy miles. With the single gap well forti- 
fied, and held by rebel bayonets, the position was about impreg- 
nable. To the southeast, however, below the town of Vilanow. 
there was a second deep defile through this long mountain ridge, 
known as Snake Creek Gap. Sherman at once determined to throw 
the right wing of his army, under McPherson, quietly but quickly 
through this deep valley, while Thomas and Schofield should 
make heavy demonstrations on the front of Rocky Face at Buz- 
zard's Roost Gap and on the slope of the mountain at Johnston's 
right. The demonstrations were made and pushed with an ardor 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 



.303 




SIEGE OF ATLANTA, 

AND 
MARCH TO LOVEJOY. 



304 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

that almost turned them into severe battles. Much fighting 
took place which could only result in our forces failing in 
assaults on such a place. But the fighting served its purpose. 
Johnston's army was kept busy by it, and on the night of the 
9th, Dodge's corps of McPherson's army pressed through the 
Snake Creek Gap and flanked the rebel position. The Thirty- 
ninth Iowa and the Ninth Illinois were the first troops through 
the gap. 

It was Sherman's intention that McPherson should seize the 
town of Resaca at the end of the gap and in Johnson's rear 
The place was found too strong for assault, and McPher- 
son waited till Sherman sent the most of his army though the 
same gap after him. Johnston flanked, at once fell back, and 
prepared for battle within the defenses of Resaca. Gen. Dodge 
was greatly surprised to find that Snake Creek Gap was abso- 
lutely unoccupied, and left like an open gate to the rear of the 
rebel army. He pushed ahead on the 9th according to orders, 
drove the Rebels in front of him and seized a strong position on 
a hill only three-quarters of a mile from the town. He chased 
the rebel line of battle from this hill, and it was his belief that 
McPherson's troops could take Resaca then and there. Had it 
been done, Johnston's army might have been captured or 
destroyed. McPherson feared the responsibility of trying, and 
Dodge's column was ordered to give up what it had gained, and 
withdraw eight miles to the mouth of the gap. 

As the Iowa regiments had nearly all marched in McPherson's 
army through the gap, they had no hand in the fighting at 
Rocky Face Ridge. Eastern troops and soldiers of Thomas's 
army of the Cumberland had done the attacking on the front, in 
this first move on the Atlanta chess board. The town of Resaca, 
surrounded by rugged hills and well fortified, sat at a bend, and 
in front of the rapid Oostenaula river. McPherson's troops 
were placed at Sherman's extreme right, resting on the river, with 
Stanley far to the left on the railroad, and Palmer, Hooker, Cox 
and others occupying the center. In front of them, protected 
largely by a little stream known as Camp Creek, stretched the 
rebel army, formed in a line like a great horse shoe, bending 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 305 

around from the river at its left to another river at its 
right and rear. After some very severe fighting at different 
points of the line, especially at Schofield's front, on the 
14th, the enemy at about three o'clock made a desperate 
effort to turn and overwhelm Sherman's left. For awhile 
success seemed possible, as Stanley was flanked and beaten; 
but at the critical moment, Hooker's divisions were moved 
in, and by brave fighting saved the day. 

At the center, too, some hard fighting took place, as well as 
with Logan, and one of Dodge's divisions, now at the extreme 
right, where a strong position held by the rebel general Polk was 
carried and held, spite of a fierce effort to recover it that evening. 
The following day, the 15th, Hooker made a fierce attack on the 
enemy, with several divisions. He carried the outer intrench- 
ments, but was not able to take the stronger breastworks in front 
of him. 

During the day, Sherman had sent Sweeney's division of 
Dodge's corps to Lay's Ferry on the Oostenaula, and in rear of 
his extreme right, with a view to bridging the stream, and pre- 
paring the way for a flank movement. Among other troops 
the division included the Second, Seventh and Thirty-Ninth 
Iowa. The movement was a complete success. The division 
crossed over the river in the face of a strong force and fought a 
battle before rebel re-enforcements could arrive. Other troops 
came to the aid of Sweeney's division, and Johnston, seeing he 
was flanked again, evacuated Resaca in the night. 

In the little battle at the bridge on the Oostenaula, the 
Seventh Iowa men fought with conspicuous valor. Col. E. W. 
Rice led the brigade of which the Second and Seventh Iowa 
formed a part. Maj. J. W. McMullen commanded the Seventh 
and protected the pioneers in putting down the pontoons. Once 
over the river, the skirmishers, under the gallant Capt. Mahon, 
moved forward and encountered the enemy, when the whole 
line came up and a spirited fight ensued, the Iowa men rushing 
on to the Rebels with a cheer, and driving them. The regiment 
lost 7 killed and 45 wounded in ten minutes time. Officers and 
men acted bravely, says Maj. McMullen. Capt. T. L. Mont- 
I. W. T.— 20 



306 IOWA IX WAR TIMES. 

gomery was wounded. The Second Iowa was also slightly 
engaged at the river, and the Thirty-ninth Iowa had a sharp 
encounter near the same place that evening; but details concern- 
ing it were never reported. In the fighting before Resaca the 
Second, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Thirty-first and 
Twenty-sixth Iowa regiments took part, but except with the 
Twenty-sixth, the losses were not severe. This regiment was, on 
the morning of the 14th, ordered to cross a creek at the front, 
and push the enemy. The men waded through the water and 
advanced to an open field, when, being left without support, they 
were met by a severe enfilading fire from right and left. Six of 
the men were killed and 17 wounded. Among the latter were 
Adjt. D. G. Butterfield and Capt. W. H. Hall. The Thirty-first 
also skirmished severely with the enemy, and among its wounded 
was Lt.-Col. Jenkins. 

Out of Resaca, the rebel army next made a stand at Adairs- 
ville, and fought quite a battle with a part of Howard's corps on 
the 17th; but the morning of the 18th found the rebel army 
again falling back and taking strong position at Cassville at the 
Etowah river. It remained here but a day, and after a little 
hard fighting, crossed over the river and fortified itself in the 
strong defenses of the Allatoona pass. The left of the rebel army 
reached along the Allatoona ridge to Lost Mountain, and was 
facing nearly west. Stronger and better positions for defense 
could not have been chosen, and it was only at the sacrifice of 
much blood that the possession of the pass was to be secured. 

A series of battles soon followed that made the campaign 
illustrious. In these battles the Iowa regiments took an honor- 
able part. Owing to the rapid movements of the army of Sher- 
man in the whole Atlanta campaign, and to its being usually, 
when resting, in bivouac, and not in tents or camps, regimental 
records were brief and incomplete. They were made only 
monthly and sent to the rear for consolidation, seldom contain- 
ing the casualties of single battles. Hence, it is almost impossi- 
ble to know the numbers or names of Iowa men lost in some of 
the severest engagements of that campaign. 

Sherman rested his troops at Kingston a little, and, realizing 



THE BATTLES FOK ATLANTA. 307 

the almost impregnable position held by Johnston's army, 
resolved to flank its left b}' marching the greater part of his 
army on Dallas, a town in front of, and a little south of Lost 
Mountain. On the 25th of May, while his columns were in 
motion for Dallas, Hooker's corps, leading the column of 
Thomas, struck the enemy in force at Pumpkin Vine creek, and 
pushing him into his intrench uients, fought the severe battle of 
New Hope Church. The union loss was very heavy and the 
troops were repulsed. The battle was fought during a terrific 
thunder storm, and all that night, in the woods and storm, the 
thousands of wounded lay moaning in the darkness. The 
knives of the surgeons were busy the long night through, 
and hundreds of men, with candles and torches, moved about in 
the woods and darkness, gathering up the maimed. They were 
to be found only by their pitiable groans. Many were not found 
at all. It was a ghastly battle scene. 

On the 27th, Sherman ordered Howard to move for the enemy's 
left, which he did, and at Pickett's Mills assaulted him, meeting 
with an experience similar to Hooker's at New Hope Church. 
Howard fortified his new ground, however, and held it. 

Shortly, Sherman's right wing under McPherson started on 
the move, to follow Howard around to the rebel left. He was 
instantly attacked, and the battle of Dallas was fought by the 
troops of Logan and Dodge. The Rebels were repulsed with 
terrible loss, and, after a little delay, a part of Sherman's 
infantry was across the railroad and at the right wing of the 
rebel army, though fighting hard by the way. 

In the Dallas battle, some of the Iowa regiments, notably 
the Sixth and the Ninth, fought heroically and lost severely. 
Among other Iowa regiments engaged, were the Twenty-fifth, 
Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first. The Sixth infantry 
lost 7 killed and 15 wounded — among the latter Lt.-Col. A. J- 
Miller and Lieut. Rodney F. Barker, while Adjt. Newby Chase 
and Lieut. Baldwin were killed. Baldwin was killed while 
heroically trying to save some guns of the First Iowa battery 
from being captured. 

It was at daylight of May 27th that the Rebels made their 



308 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

first onslaught at Dallas. On the line where the Ninth Iowa 
was, the dash was sudden, and the whole brigade was pushed 
back. The ground was soon regained, however, and the Rebels 
fell back. The next day a fresh attack was made on the same line 
by the Rebels, and with great fury. 

It was four in the afternoon when a perfect storm of Rebels 
rushed for the union lines, yelling and screaming like demons. 
The union skirmishers were shot down and run over. But when 
the confident rebel host pushed up to the quiet union line, 
waiting there in its intrenchments, it received a blast of musketry 
that stretched hundreds of its bold and hardy soldiers on the 
earth. Twice, under the withering fire, the rebel line vainly 
tried to rally and advance. It was of no use. They were 
beaten, and the wood was full of their slain. 

Fighting behind good intrenchments, the union loss at this 
point was small. The Ninth itself lost less than a dozen men 
— among them, Lieut. J. L. Wragg, mortally wounded. The other 
Iowa regiments were slightly engaged at Dallas, though daily 
taking part in the skirmishing and fighting that occurred in the 
movement of McPherson's army around to the left. Williamson's 
brigade of Iowa men participated in all these flank movements 
of Gen. Sherman, and always with credit to the state. It is 
related that on the 28th, a division at its right was giving away, 
pressed by overwhelming numbers, when the Iowa men rushed in, 
and by a bold charge saved the position. This brigade was com- 
posed of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first Iowa 
infantry regiments, and was in Osterhaus's division. No brigade 
of troops did better fighting in that great campaign than this. 

The fighting at Dallas cost the Rebels nearly 2,000 
men, and they had gained nothing. By the middle of June, 
Frank P. Blair's corps, the Seventeenth, joined the army at the 
front and brought with it some more Iowa regiments — notice- 
ably the Third infantry, and the famous Crooker brigade, then 
commanded by Col. William Hall. It consisted of the Eleventh, 
Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments of infantry. 
Allatoona pass fell, but Johnston's array retired only to refortify 
at Pine Top and Lost Mountain. 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 309 

Constant skirmishing and minor combats followed. The 
troops were almost never from under fire, so constant was the 
musketry or the roar of artillery. On the 22d of June, a part of 
the rebel army under Hood made a terrific assault on the union 
line in front of Schofield and Hooker, at Gulp's Farm. A stout 
battle followed and the Rebels were bloodily repulsed. 

Again the rebel commander changed his position, and stretched 
his lines over the cannon-bristling heights of Kenesaw Moun- 
tain. Stronger positions probably were not assumed during the 
whole war than that now held by Johnston's army. Fiercer 
fighting is scarcely recorded than took place for the possession 
of Kenesaw mountain. Gen. Sherman considered the position the 
key to the whole country about, and risked some fearful assaults 
by our troops for its capture. McPherson, Thomas and Scho- 
field agreed to the necessity for these assaults, useless and fright- 
ful as they proved in results. 

On the 27th of June, a line of Sherman's army ten miles long, 
was ablaze with musketry and artillery. The assaulting columns 
marched to the work like lions, and here and there reached the 
trenches of the enemy, but only to be hurled back with fright- 
ful loss. The great assault, witnessed from a high hill-top by 
Gen. Sherman in person, was a failure. Well on to 3,000 of our 
union soldiers were killed or wounded in less than two hours' 
time. Many gallant officers were slain, among them Gen. 
Harker, and Gen. Daniel McCook, Gen. Sherman's old law-part- 
ner. Iowa, too, lost in the assault some of her bravest men. 

During the twenty days and more that Sherman's army operated 
in front of and around Kenesaw Mountain, the Iowa regiments 
with the army were engaged, nearly all of them. From Big Shanty 
on, close up to the embattled heights of Kenesaw, these western 
regiments held their ground, or advanced under a constant skir- 
mish fire. The sound of cannon was heard day and night, and 
many a man of these Iowa regiments was mangled and borne to 
the rear to fill a nameless grave. Constantly, officers and men 
were being shot down, not in battle only, but in the daily and 
nightly skirmishes, or by the crash of cannon balls, forever 
shrieking through the woods, seeking a victim. So it was that 



310 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

even without battle, at times, the Iowa ranks, like all others of that 
brave army, grew thinner and thinner. Most of the regiments 
were constantly bivouacked close by the frowning mountain, 
firing more or less every day. 

In the charges that took place right up against the rocks of 
Kenesaw, on the 19th and 27th of June, Hall's Iowa brigade 
was at the very front, and on the latter day it went into the 
rebel fortifications and for half an hour held them in the hard 
conflict. Their heroism was useless; Kenesaw could not be taken 
by assault. Williamson's brigade, as well as other Iowa troops, 
was also in the charge of the 27th, but its losses were small. 

The Sixth Iowa, in that fierce assault of Kenesaw, lost 56 men 
out of its already thinned ranks.* The Sixteenth lost a score and 
more — among them Lieut. Dufiin, who won a gold medal for 
bravery at Vicksburg, and Lieut. Thomas A. Burke. Nearly 
all the Iowa troops in the army joined either in the assault- 
ing or supporting columns at Kenesaw. 

During the assaults on Kenesaw, some of Sherman's divisions 
moved well to the right and secured a position threatening the 
rebel line of retreat. Other troops were being pushed toward 
Johnston's rear on the 2d of July. The Rebels detected the 
movement, and that very night abandoned Kenesaw mountain, 
impregnable as it was to assault, and moved back to strong 
intrenchments they had prepared in front of the Chattahoochee 
river. 

On the 4th of July, near to Nickajack creek, a part of Gen. 
Dodge's troops, including the Second Iowa, made a splendid 
fight, storming the enemy's rifle pits in the face of a fierce resis- 
tance. Dodge's loss was heavy, but the position was gained, and 
the army again pushing forward at the river. A broad river, 
even with intrenchments and batteries at every crossing, was no 

*As heretofore stated, the reports of regimental officers in the Atlanta 
campaign were so tew, so irregular, and so incomplete, as to make a 
complete narrative of the actions of their commands an impossibility. 
The hard campaigning made proper reporting and record-making out of 
the question. "It is impossible," says Gen. Sherman, "to state accu- 
rately our losses in any one separate battle; for the fighting was contin- 
uous, almost daily, among trees and bushes, on ground where one could 
rarely see a hundred yards ahead." 




&*$ *byAH-P<,vtchT.e> 




1 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 311 

new thing for the grand army that had fought every mile of the 
way from Chattanooga to the Chattahoochee. An army that 
through a wilderness of forest, across streams, by day and by night, 
and under almost constant storms, had pushed along almost 
impassable roads, fighting battles as it marched, was not now to 
be checked so near its goal. Almost before the Rebels knew it, 
Sherman's army was across the river at different points and 
marching directly on Atlanta. 

For a month the armies in the neighborhood of Kenesaw 
mountain had been fighting almost a continuous battle. That 
June battle month cost the federal army 7,530 men. The Rebels 
lost but a thousand less. 

Peach Tree creek is a little stream just north of Atlanta, and 
running west into the Chattahoochee river. Just as a part of 
Sherman's army had crossed this creek, on July 20th, and had 
halted to rest, it was furiously attacked by the enemy, moving 
out in great force. There had been a change of commanders in 
Atlanta. Gen. Johnston was superseded by Gen. J. B. Hood, 
and the latter was supposed to be a fierce fighting soldier. He 
was, however, attempting to carry out Johnston's plan for the 
destruction of Sherman's army at a moment when it might be 
divided and moving for position about Atlanta. The burden of 
the battle of Peach Tree creek fell on Hooker's corps of Thomas's 
army, and the Rebels found it equal to the occasion. They were 
repulsed with a loss of 6,000 men. Hooker's own loss was severe. 

That day, too, McPherson's army of the Tennessee, including 
all of the Iowa regiments, was pushing along the railroad from 
Decatur to Atlanta. McPherson's rapid and decisive movement 
to the enemy's right flank that day, possibly saved Sherman's 
army an awful defeat. The whole rebel force was attacking with 
a resolve to end the campaign by a tremendous defeat of the 
union army. The rebel orders to make a desperate, decisive 
battle, were positive, and obeyed by their generals to the letter. 
Only McPherson's pressing the right flank so closely, prevented 
a greater onslaught. Troops had to be sent there to meet him, 
and the general rebel attack was weakened. Had it not been, 



312 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

McPherson 1 s soldiers would have been in Atlanta that night, or 
Sherman's army would have been on the retreat. 

Gen. Gresham, leading McPherson's advance division, in which 
there were not less than five Iowa regiments, was shot down, 
badly wounded, but the troops pushed back the rebel lines, and 
night found them close up to Bald Hill in front of Atlanta. 
The siege had begun. 

Bald Hill was a formidable position, well fortified, and held 
by some of the bravest troops in the southern army. It was 
the prominent and salient point of the rebel right wing. Its 
capture was a first necessity, and the Iowa regiments selected 
to aid in the dread assault were among the flower of Sherman's 
soldiery. The gallant Crocker brigade was again to be put on 
its mettle. At $ o'clock on the morning of the 21st of July, 
the order was given for Force's brigade of Illinois troops 
and the Iowa brigade in Gresham's division to move forward 
and storm the hill. 

The Thirteenth Iowa, led by Maj. Walker, held the right of 
the brigade line, supported by the Sixteenth Iowa, Col. Add. H. 
Sanders, in its rear. Joined to its left, commanded by the gal- 
lant Belknap, stood the Fifteenth Iowa, with the frowning hill 
directly in front of it. It was supported by the Eleventh Iowa, 
led by Lt.-Col. Abercrombie. To the left of the brigade stood 
Gen. Force with his five brave regiments, and all waited the 
signal to advance. 

Promptly at the order, Gen. Force's regiments moved on the 
enemy. The resistance was strong, and in a few minutes came 
the signal for the Iowa brigade, led by Col. Shane, also to ad- 
vance on the double-quick. Promptly the men sprang over the 
light intrenchments at their front, and dashed forward under a 
heavy fire of grape, canister and musketry. Spite of the with- 
ering fire, the line pushed on to a hill crest in front of well pro- 
tected and well manned batteries, when they saw that Force's 
line had reached the rebel parapet. The enemy had withdrawn 
to his inner works, and the hill was ours. 

In that short thirty minutes' charge, the Thirteenth Iowa lost 
113 men in killed and wounded. The Fifteenth Iowa lost 51 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 313 

killed and wounded, and the Sixteenth Iowa 65. The Eleventh 
regiment, protected somewhat by the nature of the ground, 
lost less; some 17. It was a brief, but bloody conflict. Owing 
to the strong inner works of the enemy, the right of the line 
marched back under a heavy artillery fire to its own intrench- 
ments. The brigade lost in the charge some of its most gallant 
officers. Lieutenants Ridge and Hudson of the Thirteenth were 
killed, and Lieut. White badly wounded. Lieut. Geo. H. Hol- 
comb of the Sixteenth had been killed on approaching the hill 
the night before, and Capt. Hugh Skilling was wounded at 
Nickajack creek. Sergt. Starkweather, the color bearer, distin- 
guished himself by his gallantry, bearing his flag aloft far in 
advance of his Thirteenth regiment. 

That night the Iowa brigade changed position and was moved 
to the extreme left of Sherman's army, intrenching itself in lines 
almost at right angles to the union left wing. 

That night, too, the southern army withdrew from the line of 
Peach Tree creek and fell back to the fortifications immediately 
surrounding the city. At the same time a movement was set 
on foot to flank, and, if possible, destroy Sherman's army. A 
large part of the rebel army, led by Gen. Hardee, quietly slipped 
out of Atlanta that night, marched first south and then north- 
east toward Decatur — a distance of 15 miles, and by daylight 
the next morning, July 22d, stood in the thick woods in battle 
array, at the rear of, and along the left flank of the union army. 

It was to Sherman and all his generals a perfect surprise. 
That morning on finding the Peach Tree creek line at his center 
and right abandoned, Sherman believed for a time that the 
Rebels had evacuated the city. He pushed his right and center 
closer up, and was soon undeceived. He was stopping at a point 
called the Howard House, near the center of his lines, and, while 
sitting there on the root of a tree, discussing the situation with Gen. 
McPherson, the firing of cannon was heard in rear of the left of 
his army. That left comprised the army of the Tennessee, and 
McPherson was its commander. 

Sherman's army now lay east and north of Atlanta and within 
two miles of the city. Palmer's corps was on the extreme right, 



314 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

with Hooker, Howard and Schofield along the center and 
McPherson's army to the left. Logan's Fifteenth corps of 
McPherson's army lay across the railroad running to Decatur. 
To its left was Blair's Seventeenth corps, with Giles A. Smith 
leading the division of Gresham (wounded), at the extreme end of 
the line. 

At the moment the cannon-firing was heard at the left rear 
of the union army, Gen. Dodge's corps of two divisions was 
marching along a country road, proposing to take position with 
Smith's division at the extreme left. Shortly, the cannonading 
heard back in the distance changed to musketry near at hand. 
The rebel line had approached unseen through the thick woods 
to the flank and rear of Smith's division, and had fired on 
Dodge's column in motion. Dodge's right was still half a mile 
from Smith's division at the union left, and through the woods 
in this gap, the Rebels poured in masses. It was in these 
woods, and in this gap that the gallant McPherson met his 
untimely death. He had ordered a brigade from Logan's corps 
to come and fill the vacant line, and then starting from Dodge 
across to Smith he rode right into the advancing rebel line and 
was shot dead.* The battle of Atlanta had begun. 

The absence of Sherman's cavalry on a grand raid had made it 
possible for the enemy to get to McPherson's rear unseen. It 
was a greater surprise than Shiloh. Every body was surprised. 

Dodge instantly halted his line that was marching by the 
flank, left-faced it, and poured a hot fire of musketry into the 
approaching enemy. Dodge's troops, though but 4,500 in 



*In a few minutes, the brigade McPherson had ordered to the spot came up, 
charged, and drove the Rebels back a little; it also captured a few prisoners. 
One of them had McPherson's sword and pistols, another a letter taken from 
McPherson's body, from Gen. Sherman, containing complete instructions 
for Sherman's plan of battle. Its recovery was of vast importance. An hour 
later, it would have been in the hands of the rebel commander in Atlanta. 
The recovery of Gen. McPherson's botly was accomplished through thfe bravery 
of two Iowa boys, Geo. J. Reynolds of the Fifteenth regiment, and C. J. 
Dodd of the Third. Gen. Blair ordered that each should receive the medal of 
honor of the Army of the Tennessee. They had found McPherson shot from his 
horse and dying. The news they carried to some officers, whom they piloted 
to the spot where the general lay, where, amidst a storm of bullets, they 
assisted in getting the body into an ambulance and with it galloped from 
the field. 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 315 

number, now fought a desperate battle with half the rebel 
array, receiving and repelling the first fierce onslaught — an 
onslaught that had been intended to destroy the Array of the 
Tennessee. Supreme hard fighting, and cool-headed general- 
ship in the moment of peril, helped to save a disaster. Dodge's 
men captured 8 battle-flags and killed more than 500 of the 
enemy. They had been fighting commands representing 49 
rebel regiments. 

Smith's division was bitterly attacked in rear and flank at the 
same moment, and the left was forced back with a loss of some 
artillery. Leggett's division held Bald Hill, right there, that 
the}' had captured the night before, and as other brigades came 
up, Smith's division turned its back on Atlanta and fought with 
heroic desperation. Shortly, the general battle line stood almost 
at a right angle to the line of the morning, and from noon till 
night there raged the fiercest battle of that fierce campaign. 
Dodge's division, well handled and heroic in the extreme, fought 
like lions. So did the divisions of Smith and Leggett. Ter- 
rifically, and from three directions, the conflict raged right at the 
left. Smith's division fought first on one side of its breast- 
works, and then, being attacked in rear, sprang over them, 
reversed their lines and fought from the other side. 

Part of Smith's division and the Iowa brigade fought in that 
battle in seven different positions, so often did the direction of 
attack change. 

It was a part of the well laid rebel plan that at the proper 
moment Hood, with a large force, should dash out from Atlanta 
and strike McPherson's lines from the other side. At 4 p. m. 
the dash was made with a large force directly against Bald Hill 
and along the railroad to Decatur. The union troops at the 
hill held their ground, and drove the Rebels back with fearful 
loss, but the line along the railroad, the left of Wood's division, 
was swept back, and one of the finest batteries in the whole 
army captured. 

The defeat was of short duration, for by a skillful flank move- 
ment of Wood's division, under the personal direction of Gen. 
Sherman, and by a terrific cannonading from batteries of Scho- 



316 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

field's army, massed at the Howard House, where Sherman stood 
and watched the battle, the enemy was hurled back to Atlanta. 
At the same moment, too, Logan had rallied the yielding line 
along the railroad, and the men came back on to their old ground 
with a yell. The battle was done, and leaving their thousands 
of dead and wounded in the union lines, the Rebels sullenly 
returned to the city. 

Iowa's part in the great battle had been a nobly conspicuous 
one. Her soldiers were the first fired on in the battle, and only 
darkness put an end to the conflict on their part of the line. 
All that long, fierce afternoon the Iowa brigade fought with 
desperation. So, too, did the Iowa soldiers with Williamson and 
Rice and Corse. 

The Iowa brigade, that morning, stood at the extreme left of 
the army. It was across the Flat Shoal, and along the McDon- 
ough wagon road, with the Eleventh Iowa at its right, well up 
to Leggett's force on Bald Hill, and the Fifteenth Iowa to the 
left. The Sixteenth was in the center, with the Thirteenth 
behind as a support. The line was as an arc of a circle, and in 
this position the Iowa men received the first shock of the great 
battle of Atlanta. 

Belknap led the Fifteenth, Add. H. Sanders the Sixteenth,- 
Shane the Thirteenth, Abercrombie the Eleventh and William 
Hall, colonel of the Eleventh, led the brigade. The state did 
not furnish better officers than these, and harder fighting regi- 
ments never entered the service. Each regiment had good 
intrenchments in front of it, and the Thirteenth had breast- 
works. The brush that the troops were in was so thick that the 
men could not see from one regiment to another. Only in front, 
for a distance of fifty yards, was the brush chopped away, and 
over this opening the Rebels had to charge. 

The skirmishers were driven in, and the blazing hot sun of 
that July day pointed noon just as the first line of Rebels 
sprang to the attack. They were met by volleys of musketry so 
severe as to strike the whole line to the earth, those not instantly 
killed or wounded falling to the ground for protection. Two 
federal batteries, between the regiments, joined in the havoc in 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 31T 

front. In the face of it all, a second line of brave foemen 
entered that open space, to be, like their comrades before them, 
shot to the earth. 

Two Arkansas regiments with a couple of Texas companies 
got in so hot a position close to the front of the Sixteenth Iowa, 
that they could not advance and dared not retire. They lay 
close to the ground, raked by cannon and musketry. While in 
this position, they raise the white flag, and the firing stops a 
moment, while they run over the rifle pits and surrender. The 
Sixteenth now has more prisoners than it has soldiers. But at 
that very moment the breastworks where the Thirteenth stood 
battling has been taken, and a fire in the rear meets the brave 
Sixteenth. With their bayonets the men compel their prisoners 
to stand up as a bulwark behind them, while they continue firing 
at the front. 

Just at the left, other prisoners come in, \\it refuse to surren- 
der their guns. Col. Sanders's demand for instant laying down of 
guns is met by a demand for his own surrender. Refusing and 
hurrying to get back to his right wing, a rebel captain snatches 
a gun and fires on him. Instantly Capt. Lucas shoots the rebel 
officer dead. A hand to hand conflict is about ensuing. Sanders 
thinks to cut his way out to the Eleventh Iowa on his right. It 
is of no use, for already the rebel flag floats over the works of the 
Eleventh as well as on those of the Fifteenth. There is nothing 
to do but surrender, and the Sixteenth, with the companies of 
the Thirteenth that had been helping it, are marched between 
rebel bayonets across the open space and among the heaps of 
rebel slain. 

The Thirteenth Iowa, stripped of half its strength to aid the 
front line, after a gallant resistance is ordered from its post to 
the outside, or west of the breastworks, now in their rear, and 
is again instantly whirled around with its face to the south, to 
greet the enemy now pushing it from three directions. The 
same fire that struck the Sixteenth also struck the Eleventh and 
the Fifteenth Iowa regiments, compelling them, after heavy 
fighting to change their position to the right of the main road, 



318 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

making the Fifteenth the right of a new line, with what was 
left of the Thirteenth to its left. 

For a moment, no foe is seen in the opening, and a company 
under Capt. Whitenack goes forward, to sound the wood. 
Instantly a new rebel line is run into, and 12 of the captain's 
men are lost by a single volley. Again the whole line falls back, 
and fires from the reverse side of breastworks erected for the 
Third division. 

Again the enemy comes moving on, and, at close range, so close 
that the very eyes of the Rebels can be seen, the Iowa men let 
loose their musketry. The Forty-fifth Alabama advances to the 
very muzzles of the Iowa guns, fighting and firing as they come, 
till every man of them is shot down or captured. Private 
Crowder shoots down the rebel color bearer and takes the flag. 
Col. Lampley, leading the desperate rebel regiment, is seized by 
Col. Belknap and ha,uled over the breastworks by the collar. 

So it was in all the brigade — fighting first on one side of their 
intrenchments and then on the other. All sides and all direc- 
tions became the points of danger to every man fighting there 
at Sherman's left. 

The Thirteenth has lost, in the storming of the hill the day 
before, and in its fighting of this day, 262 officers and men out 
of 400 engaged, a part of whom were captured. Its gallant 
major, Wni. A. Walker, who led the charge on the hill the day 
before, has been killed. 

The Sixteenth is all lost — mostly captured, officers and all. 

The Fifteenth has among its wounded its heroic and accom- 
plished Lt.-Col. J. M. Hedrick, Lieut. Gephart is killed, and Lieu- 
tenants Evans, Muir and Crawford, with Capt. Thomas Hedrick 
of Co. K, are also wounded. There are 49 of the regiment killed 
and wounded, and 82 missing. Many of these also will prove to 
have been slain. 

The Eleventh Iowa has lost 129 men and 8 officers, and among 
its slain are the faithful Maj. Foster, and Capt. Neal; so, too, 
Lieut. Caldwell. Lieutenants Pfoutz and Wylie are wounded. 
Capt. Barr is captured. Brave Sergt. Maj. John Safley is 
also wounded, and Sergt. John A. Buck is killed. Together, 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 319 

with a handful of men, these two sergeants sprang over the 
breastworks of the enemy, captured a number greater than their 
own and brought them in — among them a rebel colonel and a 
captain. Private George Haworth springs over the intrench- 
ment and captures a battle flag, and Private Edward Siberts of 
Co. G has brought in a rebel banner. So it has been all through 
the battle — heroic men doing heroic things. Capt. John Ander- 
son of the Eleventh has, with a handful of men, less than a 
hundred, been sent to hold a little fort at the hill. Bravely he 
does it against ten times his number, battling to get in. All 
alone the line of the divisions of Smith and Leggett the enemy 
has been so close that at times it has been a hand to hand con- 
flict. Bayonets have been used, and muskets clubbed and beaten 
over the heads of men right in the rifle pits. 

Four o'clock has come, and the scene shifts a little farther 
toward Sherman's center. Hood's army in Atlanta is breaking 
out and violently attacking the Fifteenth army corps. A part 
of it also makes an attack on the side of Bald Hill next to 
Atlanta. Leggett's division, that a moment before was fighting 
the enemy in the rear, springs over its breastworks, meets this 
new foe from the opposite direction, and at last hurls him back 
with bloody loss. 

In front of the Fifteenth corps it is different. The enemy 
has swept back a division and broken through the lines. A deep 
cut in the railroad toward Decatur has been of service to them. 
In their advance they have seized the guns of an Illinois battery, 
and farther back they have captured De Gress's splendid battery 
of 20-pounder Parrott guns. 

Gen. Sherman, as already stated, witnessed the rebel success 
from the Howard House near by, and massed Schofield's artillery 
on their advancing flank. He saw the seriousness of the situa- 
tion. " That battery must be retaken," he said, and William- 
son's brigade of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, and Thirtieth 
Iowa (the Thirty-first detached) was selected for the purpose. 
With his Fourth Iowa on the right, the Ninth on the left, and 
the Twenty-fifth in reserve, Williamson passed down through a 
wooded ravine, and, gaining the opposite slope, struck the enemy 



320 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

a blow that sent his flank reeling. De Gress's battery was 
instantly in his hands and its guns turned on the flying Rebels. 
The losses of the brigade were slight, for other troops of Logan's 
corps and the Sixteenth corps had rallied to the scene, and the 
enemy, with severe loss, was driven back into Atlanta. 

Among other Iowa troops fighting in Smith's or GreshanTs 
old divisions that day, was a little battalion of veterans of the 
Third Iowa. They were few in number, but almost fought that 
few out of existence. Lt.-Col. Aberneth}', leading the little 
band, was slain. He received his commission but the day before. 
Capt. Griffith, one of the former brave color bearers of the old 
regiment, was mortally wounded, and many of the little battal- 
ion were killed, wounded or captured. There was nothing left 
of it. They had perished, fighting around the flag the historic 
regiment had borne on many a field. While some of the cap- 
tured were being led away, back of Atlanta, they saw their dear 
old flag in the hands of the Rebels. It was the resolve of an 
instant. With a bound they sprang to the flag, and, in the face 
of their captors, tore it into shreds. The noble Third regi- 
ment and its flag perished together. 

The Second, Sixth and Seventh Iowa also did some good 
fighting in their respective commands at Atlanta, but it was not 
their fortune to be assaulted and battled as were some of the 
other Iowa regiments. Yet Elliot Rice, leading the brigade in 
which the Second and Seventh Iowa fought, repulsed the 
onslaught of one of Hardee's whole divisions. Col. N. B. 
Howard, leading the Second regiment, and Capt. Geo. Heaton, 
were wounded. The regiment held a position between two bat- 
teries, and in the fight captured numerous prisoners and a battle 
flag. The Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth Iowa were also engaged, 
but lo3t slightly. 

The day's battle of the 22d, at Atlanta, had been a destructive 
one to the southern army. Nothing had been gained, while 
their losses had been nearly 10,000 in killed and wounded and 
missing. Gen. Logan, commanding after Gen. McPherson's 
death, estimated the enemy's dead alone to number over 3,000. 
One thousand dead bodies were delivered to the enemy under 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 321 

flag of truce by one single division of Blair's corps. What a 
funeral train was that! Gen. Dodge buried well on to 500 in 
front of his corps, and 700 were buried in front of Logan's 
corps. The woods were full of the dead and dying. 

The federal army's loss was 3,722. It had fought largely 
behind intrenchments and was on the defensive. Counting the 
losses of both armies, there were over 13,000 human beings, 
wounded or dead, lying about Atlanta as the result of that one 
day's battle. 

In less than a week, Gen. Sherman, having destroyed the rail- 
road leading to Decatur, commenced moving his army around 
Atlanta to his right. At Ezra Church, Hood, thinking Sher- 
man's army in motion, or ao least not yet in good position, rushed 
out, and for the third time made a furious attack. 

To their chagrin, the Rebels found Logan's Fifteenth corps, 
on which the main assault fell, in good position, and already 
behind intrenchments. Logan held the crest of the wooded 
ridge that sloped with open fields toward Atlanta. Up this 
open slope charged the rebel columns, only to meet a murderous 
fire and be hurled back. Time and again the brave men were 
led to the useless slaughter. At three o'clock in the afternoon, 
after a loss of nearly 5,000 men, the rebel army recoiled and fell 
back into Atlanta. Sherman's divisions, owing to their excel- 
lent positions, lost but 600 men. 

In the battle of Ezra Church, the Iowa soldiers present on the 
line of attack did their duty well, though there was, with them, 
none of the desperate fighting witnessed on the 22d, at the left 
of the army. The Fifteenth Iowa, with the Thirty-second Ohio, 
was sent under the lead of Col. Belknap to the assistance of 
Morgan L. Smith's division, then heavily attacked. Here they 
repulsed several charges, the men fighting nobly. The loss was 
2 killed and 8 wounded. Among the latter was Lieut. Henry 
Schievers. The regiment received the thanks of Gen. Smith. 

The Thirteenth and the Third, what was left of it, a mere 

handful, were sent to the aid of Gen. Harrow's division in the 

Fifteenth corps, and by good firing from behind a breastwork 

of logs and rails, drove the enemy from their front, with little 

I. W. T.— 21 



322 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

loss to themselves. Two men were killed and six wounded. Col. 
Shane, who led the regiment, complimented Captains J. C. 
Kennedy and John Archer for gallantry and efficiency in battle. 

Other Iowa regiments were slightly engaged at Ezra Church 
but with small losses. 

In the month's siege of Atlanta that now commenced, with 
its constant skirmishing and petty conflicts, some of the regi- 
ments lost as many officers and men as though they had been 
engaged in important battles. The Second Iowa, in the month's 
skirmishes about Ezra Church, lost not less than 20 in killed 
and wounded. Among the former was Lieut. Rausch. 

Just as the Iowa regiments had lost scores and scores of men and 
officers in skirmishes all along the way in that campaign from 
Chattanooga, where the sound of battle was heard by day and by 
night, so here, in the siege, every day saw its victims. Not falling 
in the fierceness of some mighty battle, their names were usually 
unheralded, but their heroism, their patriotism, their duty done, 
day by day and hour by hour, in darkness and in light, made their 
sacrifice as great as the sacrifice of those who died in hard bat- 
tle. They were the heroes of the skirmish line. 

On the 25th of August, Sherman decided to abandon the weary 
siege of the city, and to drive Hood out of Atlanta by a grand 
movement by the right flank and to Hood's rear. His army 
marched for Hood's lines of communication, the West Point and 
the Macon railroads. The movement brought on the battle of 
Jonesboro. 

Hood, alarmed by the movement of Sherman's cavalry on the 
railroads at his rear, had divided his army in Atlanta, and sent 
half of it, under Hardee, to Jonesboro, retaining the remainder 
in the city. 

The army of the Tennessee, under Howard, after considerable 
resistance, lay intrenched in front of Jonesboro, on the morning 
of Aug. 31st. Its position was good, and with deployed lines 
Howard's divisions waited Hardee's attack. 

As on the 22d of July, the rebel army came on with a rush. 
Howard had the Fifteenth corps in the center, and the Sixteenth 
and Seventeenth at his flanks, and met the dashing enemy with 





BVT. MAJOR GENL . U. S .VOLS 



THE BATTLES FOR ATLANTA. 323 

a solid blaze of musketry and artillery. The fight commenced at 
three o'clock in the afternoon, and was over by five, the enemy 
being driven back into Jonesboro. 

The next day, Sept. 1st, Sherman's Fourteenth corps, led by 
Davis, closed down on Jonesboro from the north, and at 4 o'clock 
dashed on to, and captured the rebel works, and with them the 
whole of Govan's hard fighting brigade and 10 cannon. 

Here, as at Ezra Church, the Iowa regiments engaged did their 
measure of duty, but the fighting that fell to them was not 
especially severe. The Iowa, or "Crocker" brigade, as it was so 
often called, after its first commander, now led by the gallant 
Belknap, was active in the engagement, and repeatedly moved 
from position to position under heavy fire. It fortunately suf- 
fered little. 

Once, during the advance, the Second and Seventh Iowa ran 
on to a body of rebel cavalry, posted behind a barricade of rails. 
They were ordered to charge the position, and did so in splendid 
style, driving the enemy to flight. Maj. Hamill led the two reg- 
iments till he was wounded, when Capt. Mahon took the lead in 
the pursuit, charging and driving the Rebels from two other 
positions. 

Night came on, and Hardee escaped. 

That night, walking up and down at his bivouac, Gen. Sher- 
man heard explosions in Atlanta, twenty miles away. Hood was 
leaving the city. The great campaign was done, and over all 
the loyal North went the glad tidings, "Atlanta is ours." All 
the bells of the North, and all the cannon joined in the chorus, 
"Atlanta is ours, Atlanta is ours." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864— GOV. STONE'S ADMINISTRATION. 

On the last day of August, 1864, the democratic party and all 
its treasonable allies met in Chicago, and nominated Geo. B. 
McClellan for the presidency. He had been a failure as a loyal 
soldier; what he might be as a disloyal or " peace " candidate, was 
now to be proven. The people who set this military toy up as 
a rival of Abraham Lincoln, declared the war was a failure. It 
was an extraordinary spectacle — a major general of an army 
throwing up his hands to cry enough, right in the midst of a suc- 
cessful war. " Peace is wanted," cried the friends of McClellan. 
" The war has failed." 

Instantly, as an answer to the infamous lie, there came a 
shout from east and west that Atlanta had been won. " Atlanta 
is ours — Atlanta is ours," was rung from every loyal church 
bell in the land. A thousand cannon in thunder tones echoed 
the tidings at every post and military station in all the North, 
and in the lines of the union army over all the South. 

Sherman, with a victorious army, stood within the strong- 
est citadel of the heart of the South. In the valley of 
Virginia, Sheridan had almost annihilated the rebel army at 
Winchester and Fisher's Hill, while Farragut and his mighty 
ships of war passed the walls of fire and rode straight into Mobile 
bay. It was a victory autumn, and every soldier in the land gave 
the lie to the convention at Chicago that had declared the war a 
failure. 

Shortly before that convention met in Chicago, some of the 
leaders of the democratic party in congress, and they were 
friends of McClellan, stood on the floor of the House of Repre- 
sentatatives and cursed the government, mocked its leaders, 

(324) 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864. 325 

shouted treason and defied the hand that should be raised against 
them. The speeches of Long who pronounced the war "an infer- 
nal and stupendous folly," and of Davis, and of Fernando Wood, 
were too infamously disloyal to be thought in earnest. Know- 
ing these men, however, knowing their disloyal public utter- 
ances, and knowing that they were the country's enemies, Geo. 
B. McClellan, a union soldier, basely accepted a nomination 
from their hands. 

In the campaign that followed, the American people taught 
McClellan and his treasonable followers their mistake. In the 
autumn elections, he received the electoral vote of but three 
states; New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. Abraham Lin- 
coln's electoral majority was one hundred and ninety-one. The 
same fall election turned some thirty of the rebel sympathizing 
congressmen out of their seats, leaving in the lower house but 
41 Democrats to 143 Republicans. 

In loyal Iowa, there was no limit to the joy over the splendid 
union victories, or over the total and disgraceful discomfiture 
of Geo. B. McClellan and the party he had represented. The 
result of that year's elections in Iowa was a monument to the 
state's loyalty. The union ticket received some 40,000 majority. 
McClellan carried but two counties in the state — Dubuque and 
Appanoose, and the latter by only 43 votes majority. 

Among the Iowa soldiers his name was received with scorn. 
The voice in the field against him was almost unanimous. In 
the Thirty-sixth Iowa regiment, out of 234 ballots, he received 
but four. In the gallant Third regiment, McClellan received 
no votes at all. He had been a union soldier, and this was how 
the union soldiers loved him. The result must have stung him 
to the heart. 

Possibly McClellan's ambition did not make him a traitor. 
Possibly he did not at heart want the Union destroyed. No one 
will ever know. But his party, the men in whom he trusted, 
the men at whose hands he accepted honors — these were north- 
ern traitors, conspiring to end the war by dishonorable peace. 
At Chicago, he became their spokesman and banner bearer. 
The country so judged him, and he was politically buried forever. 



326 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

The same elections saw the state candidates of the republican 
party in Iowa elected by enormous majorities. The presidential 
electors chosen were C. Ben. Darwin, W. G. Thompson. John 
Van Valkenberg, Samuel S. Burdett, B. T. Hunt, Daniel An- 
derson and Gilman C. Mudgett. William B. Allison, James F. 
Wilson, Hiram Price, J. B. Grinnell, John A. Kasson and A. W. 
Hubbard were elected to Congress. What names many of them 
have become since then on the state's roll of fame! Some of 
them have now long been familiar to the whole nation and have 
been crowned with honors. Hon. C. C. Cole, formerly a distin- 
guished and loyal Democrat, was chosen supreme judge in Iowa 
at the same election. James Wright was made secretary of state, 
John A. Elliott, auditor; Wm. H. Holmes, treasurer; J. A. Harvey, 
register of the land office and Isaac L. Allen, attorney-general. 

Since the last Thanksgiving day in Iowa, great events had 
taken place. There had been great battles, victories and defeats. 
Thousands of Iowa men lay dead on southern fields, thousands 
were starving to death amid the horrors of southern prisons, and 
other thousands lay mangled, sick, suffering and dying in army 
hospitals. It was a time to make men think. Loyal Iowa did 
think, and the pulse-beats of her whole loyal people were as one. 
The war should go on, treason should be trampled in the earth, 
the Republic saved, — if all should die. That was the patriotism 
worthy of the Greek that wished no life, if without a country. 

Not the young blood of Iowa only was offered at its country's 
altar. A. thousand men, whose age exempted them from war, 
had shouldered their muskets and joined the army. Possibly 
history affords no parallel to Iowa's "Gray beard" regiment, the 
band of organized men, many of them sixty years of age, who 
mustered with their sons for battle. That regiment of patriots 
had already sent thirteen hundred sons and grandsons to the war. 
When the fathers themselves marched with steady step, with 
earnest eye and loyal heart, it was a scene for an epic poet or a 
tragic artist. Iowa alone had the honor of such a band of pat- 
riots, and on the scroll of history their fame will be written with 
the fame of the old Continentals of the Revolution, the soldiers 
of Cromwell and the heroic Greeks. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864. 327 

That late summer of 1864 witnessed the decree that abolished 
slavery forever in Maryland. It was a great day, and as if some 
divine fate itself were directing events, that very hour, Roger B. 
Taney, the judicial upholder of human bondage, died. The old 
era passed away as the new was coming in. There were not 
wanting thousands of pious patriots who saw in this, as in other 
events of that awful War Time, the hand of Almighty God. The 
awful crime that the Republic had fostered under the Stripes 
and Stars was doomed, but the people, north and south, guilty 
of this outrage on their fellow men, were paying the penalty in 
their hearts 1 blood. 

" Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord." 

And on that Thanksgiving day of 1864, more than at any 
time during the dreadful conflict, the people of the North real- 
ized that God's hand was in the war. The close of that great 
year saw the retirement of Gov. Kirkwood from the guberna- 
torial office. He had served the two terms usually accorded gov- 
ernors, and with distinguished honors and with the universal 
respect of the people, he transferred to his successor the state 
government — not in bankruptcy and unarmed as he had found it, 
but rich, loyal, and equipped for war. His retirement, however, 
was a source of almost universal regret. He and Iowa soldiers 
had been as one — one impulse, one interest, one intense loyalty. 
His parting message to his people was one of wisdom and encour- 
agement. He left the house that he had governed in good order. 
The state's credit was now better than before, her schools were 
flourishing, her public institutions numerous and largely paid 
for. Business pursued its even way, spite of the war. Iowa's 
fields yielded abundantly, her people were honored, and her sol- 
diers were heroes. 

" I must say a word still to them," he exclaimed in parting. 
" These men whom Iowa has sent to the field have been at least 
second to none in soldierly qualities. When the war began, ours 
was a new state without a history. To day, her name stands on 
one of the brightest pages of our country's record, graven there 
by the bayonets of our brave soldiers, and that page is all glow- 



328 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

ing with proofs of their heroism and devotion. We have sent 
to the field no regiment of which we do not feel greatly proud, 
and the bare mention of the names of many of them stirs the 
blood and warms the heart of every Iowan. It may perhaps be 
permitted me to say that 1 trust that when the history of the gal- 
lantry and devotion of these men shall be written, the position I 
have held will of necessit}' connect my name kindly and not dis- 
creditably with theirs, and that this trust affords compensation 
for somewhat of toil and care which have attended that position, 
and should be sufficient to satisfy an ambition greater than 
mine." 

Kirkwood's name is connected with the names of the Iowa 
soldiers " kindly, and not discreditably," and no monument to 
their heroism, however grand, will be complete that does not 
link with their names, inseparably, the names of Kirkwood and 
of Baker. To their loyal hearts and patient virtues are due 
many of the successes that have handed down to history the 
fame and the deeds of Iowa soldiers in the war for the 
Republic. 

The beginning of 1864 saw Iowa 12,000 men ahead of her 
quota, but ready for any and every new demand for men or 
money. Patriotic zeal, coupled with the love of adventure, had 
even entered into the breasts of the boys, scores of whom, far under 
the proper age, left their homes and presented themselves at 
recruiting offices for enlistment. " One thousand boys," wrote 
Adjt. Gen. Baker in March, " have been sent home by us at the 
expense of the state. 

Both the general government and state continued to give 
splendid bounties to men enlisting, whether to fill up the old com- 
mands, thinned by war's ravages, or to enter new organizations. 

Discharged soldiers who re-enlisted, received $400 in bounty 
from the general government, and frequently large sums from 
towns, counties and cities in addition. The county of Dubuque, 
previous to that Thanksgiving clay of 1864, had paid out $115,000 
for bounties. Other counties, in proportion to population and 
wealth, had paid even more. 

The state had but 700,000 population, and one-ninth of it 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864. 329 

was iu the battle field. Every other arms-bearing man in Iowa 
was at the front. It was a remarkable showing. It seemed as if 
every family in the whole state had some member fighting for 
his country. The husband of Mrs. E. W. Atmore was in the 
ranks of the Fifteenth regiment, and sick in hospital of a fever. 
Two of her sons were in the army, and two other sons were dead 
for their country. " I have four brothers fighting in the army, 1 ' 
wrote a young lady of Iowa — four brothers, a father and several 
cousins. 

Every mail brought sorrow to some wounded heart at home. 
A message by telegraph was followed by a dress of mourning. 
" I think Capt. Smith of the Sixteenth Iowa is killed," tele- 
graphed Adjt. Gen. Baker to a friend. " Break the news as 
lightly as possible to his wife." That was the kind of message 
the wires brought daily from Atlanta and the South. 

Up at the arsenal in Des Moines, one reads in the record 
book, where every soldier's name is given, these words: 



ISAAC N. YOUNT, 

TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY, 

Shot in the heart by a musket ball. 



It is but one record of ten thousand. This is the dead patriot's 
history. Above the record books, festooned together with others, 
hangs the flag that this man's heart's-blood saved. All the 
immense room is hung with flags and banners that other men's 
hearts' blood has saved. Tread softly and with bared head 
enter, for in this room, around, above, are the sacred relics of a 
holy war. The spots on yonder banner are your father's blood. 
That bullet-riddled flag lay on the dead body of your brother at 
Vicksburg. That other banner, torn and gray and ragged, was 
the first union flag to float on a rebel rampart. That other 
waved tv Liberty's" welcome from the dome of South Carolina's 
capitol. These flags are the certificates of Iowa's heroism in a 
mighty war. Those blood stains are from the hearts of Redfield 
at Allatoona, McFarland at Prairie Grove, Mills and Baker at 
Corinth, Kinsman at Black River, Cloutman at Donelson. Rice at 
the Saline river, Wentz at Belmont, Hill at Nashville, Newbold 



330 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

and Mix of the deadly line at Pleasant Hill. They are the 
blood of Torrence, of Abbott, of Dunlap and of Wilds. Not of 
these alone. Ten thousand hearts ceased beating when these 
flags were borne across the ramparts of the foe. The best young 
blood of all this noble state turned into scarlet the gold of the 
stars of yonder banner. That flag staff, broken and pierced with 
rebel balls, was borne in the deadly charge of Mission Ridge. 
Five brave men were killed or crippled bearing that other flag 
at Donelson. That bit of bunting, faded and torn, wrapped the 
cold clay of Iseminger at Shiloh. 

Look up, if there thrills in your breast one drop of the patriot's 
blood, and know that here you stand in the presence of the spirits 
of heroes and martyrs. Here is the Pantheon of your heroic dead. 
Here are the emblems of our honor. Before these emblems, 
how small are we! We hear but the voice of man; these 
hero martyrs heard the voice of God. Spirits of the dead, we 
call you back, that we may swear again within this patriot shrine 
that no base act of ours shall make your deeds in vain. Cursed 
be the man who does not honor these torn flags, and doubly 
cursed who does not prize the liberties their defenders saved! 

These flags and these banners that the state of Iowa has pre- 
served within walls of stone and iron, are not the colors of 
triumphant armies that have marched over human right to vic- 
tory. They are the honored emblems of free government and 
of man's rights. Not since the crusades to the Holy Sep- 
ulchre, have armies fought in a holier cause than did the union 
troops, striving to preserve free government on the earth. The 
flags of Napoleon, exhibited under the dome of the Invalides in 
Paris, are the signs of French conquest. The banners of Fred- 
erick the Great, gathered above his tomb at Pottsdam, are signs 
of a personal and victorious tyranny. The flags of the loyal 
North are the symbols of a war for human rights. So long as 
Iowa shall have a record among men, these flags will be the 
emblems of her heroic age. 

Iowa had another reason to be thankful in 1864. It was for the 
gallantry of some of her regiments that had been sent east to 
fight by the side of soldiers from the Potomnc against the vet- 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864. 331 

erans of Lee's army. In no section of the country was there 
fiercer war than in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. Its 
people had sinned much in disloyalty. " I will fight treason 
wherever I find it," wrote Mr. Lincoln to the Virginians. He 
found it all over the old state, and Sheridan, in the September 
days of 1864, fought it in the valley, and fought it very hard. 
Iowa men marched through the town and past the gallows place 
of old John Brown, and with sword and bayonet and musket 
helped destroy Early's Virginia army. There were great union 
victories in that valley, and Iowa had reason to be proud of her 
share in them. 

Yet, notwithstanding the great victories of the union army, 
there was no cessation of continued preparation in Iowa, as, 
indeed, all over the nation. Then, as in the years before, Adjt. 
Gen. Baker was the soul of the military system of the state. His 
great work never grew less. He wanted nothing less until the 
country should be surely saved. " I am always with you for the 
country and its preservation," he wrote to a public man. " I am 
just where the democratic party used to be — a party for the 
defense of the government in any peril, danger or emergency — 
a party whose doctrine used to be unalloyed loyalty for the 
defense of the Stars and the Stripes. I am there still, and shall 
be there forever. Your kind expressions of approval are better 
to me than anything that could be furnished by any person, 
power or state. I try to do my duty, and the approval of such 
men as you is an incentive to try to do better, if I can. I want no 
office. I try to do my duty for the state and nation, and if I 
have done it well, I shall leave that record for my children." 

The state now knows how well he kept his word; his record 
was long since made up, and the soldiers of Iowa who were the 
children of his care, recognize how loyal and how true he was. 
Not in many years will Iowa have such a servant of the state 
again. Such men are only here and there the product of a coun- 
try. They ai*e the souls born of an emergency, and fate only 
gives them for some great demand. 

With the beginning of the new year 1864, Col. William M. 
Stone had become governor of Iowa. The transfer of executive 



332 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

power in no way changed the patriotic course of the state or its 
determination to furnish the last man and the last dollar, if need 
be, to continue the prosecution of the war. The new governor 
was personally a zealous patriot, a determined man, an experi- 
enced military officer and an executive who recognized that in 
Iowa, perfect loyalty to the wishes of the people was the only 
possible political road to travel. 

With intense energy he took up the just cause where his suc- 
cessful and popular predecessor had laid it down. Apparently, 
no change of state officials had taken place — so one-purposed, 
so one-handed and one-hearted did the people of Iowa continue 
to strive to save the bulwark of liberty. 

The improved condition of affairs in Iowa at the close of Gov. 
Kirkwood's administration, has already been alluded to. Gov. 
Stone proposed no steps backward. His administration proved 
to be broad, patriotic and successful. Brilliant as were his 
endowments, it was no easy task to achieve popularity, following 
a predecessor of such conspicuous ability, such political insight, 
and such preeminent statesmanship. But both had the same 
aims and purposes — the honor of the state — the prosecution of 
the war; and Stone's administration was a lo3*al marching on in 
the course which had already rendered Iowa conspicuous for pat- 
riotism. 

Among his noted services to the state and nation, in the sum- 
mer of 1864, was his earnestness in urging on the government 
the Hundred Days volunteers. With two or three other gov- 
ernors of northwestern states, he believed that in the great 
campaigns about to be inaugurated for that summer, the hands 
of our generals could be strengthened by the use of several 
thousand men enlisted for short terms. These men, he main- 
tained, could garrison posts, hold interior lines, guard railroads, 
care for the thousands of prisoners in our hands, and so release 
for duty at the front a whole army of veteran soldiers. 

It was a splendid conception. The plan, however, was not so 
readily adopted as would have been expected. It met, indeed, 
with extreme opposition at its very inception. Gov. Stone was 
on intimate terms with President Lincoln, and at an interview 




GOVERNOR \VM. M. STONE. 



THANKSGIVING DAT, 1864, 333 

between the President and the governors who wished to offer the 
troops, appealed to the President in deep earnestness for their 
acceptance. Mr. Lincoln's whole cabinet was present. So, too, 
was Maj.-Gen. Halleck. " Let us have your opinion, Gen. Hal- 
leck," said Mr. Lincoln. "No faith in it at all! Volunteers 
won't earn their clothes in a hundred days," answered the gen- 
eral, emphatically. " But look at Wilson's Creek," interrupted 
Gov. Stone; "Iowa's hundred days men won that battle; look at 
Donelson, stormed by men who never fired a gun before." "You 
are right," cried the President, slapping his knee as he spoke. 
"Mr. Chase, can you raise the money, and how much will the 
venture cost?" turning to the finance secretary. "Yes," was 
the quick answer, " the money can be had. The proposition is 
excellent, and there are the figures." Secretary Stanton also 
favored the proposition, and before the meeting closed, the gov- 
ernors were authorized to raise the regiments. 

Stone hurried home and in a stirring and patriotic appeal asked 
young Iowa again for men. His letter to the people was one of 
the best expositions of the critical situation of public affairs that 
had appeared anywhere. In language burning with eloquence 
and patriotism, he urged the immediate raising of the hundred 
days regiments. All the young men in the stores and shops 
were begged to enroll themselves and connect their names with 
.the names of the heroes at the front. The young women of 
the state were urged to do as their sisters in Mt. Pleasant and 
Burlington — volunteer to supply the places of young men 
enlisting to be soldiers. All over the state, in fact, the women 
were as anxious as the governor himself to see the armies at the 
front strengthened for renewed conflict. 

At the city of Des Moines, 40 young ladies volunteered 
together to go to work as clerks in shops and stores and to 
accept soldiers' pay, wherever men should enlist. In a published 
card, under their own names, they closed with these words 
to the employees: " We prefer to be invited to take your places, 
but if not, we will in a body proceed to your places of business 
by Tuesday next, to say to you, go." 

Rapidly the regiments were filled up, and in quick time Iowa 



334 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

had nearly 4,000 more men marching toward Dixie. Nobly 
these regiments of Hundred Days men served the purposes 
for which they volunteered. The veteran armies were relieved 
from post, garrison and guard duty in the South, and marched 
to new victories, while the Hundred Days men, picketing and 
guarding the lines of supplies, holding the forts, and watching 
the roads in the rear of the armies, were performing often as 
arduous, as useful and as patriotic duties as the men farther 
forward in the smoke of the battle. 

Just as Stone was hurrying to organize his Hundred Days men, 
the draft was proceeding in other states, and the War Depart- 
ment also ordered a draft in certain derelict districts of Iowa, 
unless the governor should object. Stone did object, until all 
other states should do what Iowa had done — fill their quotas — 
and, in any event, until the state should have failed in raising the 
Hundred Days men. A few men, in certain districts, had been 
drafted in Iowa, but had the full number of volunteers been 
credited on the books of the War Department, no draft at any 
time would have been necessary in the state. 

Another of the noticeable and patriotic acts of this adminis- 
tration was the loyal stand taken by Gov. Stone as to the state 
militia. He ordered its organization to be completed in every 
district, under the leading of true and loyal men, but soon found 
it in certain portions of the state on the Missouri border being 
turned into an instrument, not of defense, but of treason. There 
were 33,000 organized "Sons of Liberty" in the state, whose aim 
was opposition to the government of the state and the nation. 
These detestable and treasonable comrades of house burners, 
assassins and midnight murderers, labored to secure the offices 
in the militia companies of the border counties, and thus cripple 
them for patriotic use against invaders from Missouri, or still 
worse, turn them at some critical moment against the state. 
Stone knew of their machinations, and accepted the challenge 
thrown to him by a lot of banded villains intent on crippling 
the arm of the state. He publicly informed them of his knowl- 
edge of their doings, forbade the issuing of commissions of any 
kind to them, whether elected officers or not, and, in case any 



THANKSGIVING DAY, 1864. 335 

strife should be brought about by them in revenge, threatened 
them with powder and ball. It was a wholesome lesson, and the 
governor was sustained in his purpose by the whole state. 

Possibly the "Sons of Liberty" in Iowa never realized how near 
to death's door they stood before the war days passed. Their 
secret assemblies were watched, their aims known, and their 
open outbreak was waited for. One open blow from them then, 
and public indignation would have justified their being swept 
from existence. 

Duriug Gov. Stone's administration of state affairs, Iowa, 
spite of the great war raging, made marvelous strides in growth. 
His public papers, messages and documents, teemed with 
praises of the state, the resources of her soil, the riches of her 
fields, the advantages of her institutions, the intelligence and 
patriotism of her people — the heroism of her soldiers. His zeal, 
and the zeal of those like him, drew emigration to the state, and 
with it riches, till, before the war ended, Iowa was richer, more 
prosperous, more powerful than when the war began. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

December, 1864. 

Half the people of America have grown from childhood to 
manhood since the country was electrified by the news that Sher- 
man's army had marched from Atlanta to the sea. Twenty 
years have gone, and we begin to know better the significance 
of the most picturesque as well as the most important campaign 
of the Civil War. 

Not less than seventeen Iowa regiments took part in the bril- 
liant campaign. 

The Ninth Iowa infantry, commanded by Capt. McSweeny, 
severed the last link of the railroad that connected Sherman's 
army with the North. The last train had passed northward 
from Atlanta, when, on the 12th of November, the Iowa boys 
tore up the track and filled in the cuts behind it — when, with- 
out a base, without communications, and with a three hundred 
miles march in front of it, the army swung loose for the sea. 

The battle of Chattanooga had proved the most crushing dis- 
aster that had happened to the Confederacy during the war; but 
a greater disaster still was waiting the South. Grant had gone to 
the armies in the East, and Sherman was threatening to cut 
what was left of the Confederacy in two. Of course that could 
not be done without first destroying or crippling the rebel army 
in his front. It was a long and perilous journey for an army 
from Chattanooga to Atlanta, the "gate city of the South." 
Nature had fortified the country against invasion almost every 
foot of the way, and a well commanded army of veterans occu- 
pied intrenchments, and river banks, and bridges, and mountain 
heights, in such force as to make almost disheartening any 

(336) 



THE MAECH TO THE SEA. 337 

attempt at a forward campaign. Sherman's campaigns, how- 
ever, had all been of the forward kind. He had seldom fought 
twice over the same ground, and he led an army accustomed to 
victory. In himself was represented a type of soldier that 
comes not once in a century; courageous, original, blest with 
great resources of intellect; a trained soldier with the heart of 
a civilian, perfect in knowledge of the conduct of wars, cool in 
judgment, audacious in action, enthusiastic in the cause he was 
fighting for; an intense patriot, and possessed of the universal 
affection of his troops. Only such a leader could undertake with 
hopes of success a campaign so difficult as the 120 days' battle 
that lay between him and Atlanta. This 120 days' fighting was 
more than preliminary to the march to the sea; in a sense, it was 
a part of that march. To destroy the armies in front of him, to 
take Atlanta, the central furnishing depot of the South; to des- 
troy the lines that fed Lee's army; to show the Confederacy that 
their very interior and strongest places were not invulnerable; to 
put a victorious northern army right in the heart of the South, 
and show the world that it could stay there; this was what Sher- 
man set out to do. To do it, the Atlanta campaign became a 
necessity; so did the march to the sea. Throwing the same army 
that marched to Savannah right into Lee's rear, and later compell- 
ing him to surrender to Grant or flee to the mountains, was the 
additional possibility planned for, and believed in, long before 
the march seaward was commenced. The plan to strike Lee's 
rear with Sherman's army from Atlanta, 1,000 miles away, devel- 
oped slowly. Its execution meant a tremendous move on the 
military chess board. Lee saw the fatal danger, ere the cam- 
paign was half done, and mentally resolved, as we see later, on 
leaving Richmond the moment Sherman's columns should get as 
far toward him as the Roanoke River. 

The terrific events in Sherman's campaign, between the Ten- 
nessee River and Atlanta, had never been surpassed on the con- 
tinent. They were scarcely surpassed by the great single battles 
of Spottsylvania, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor. It was not 
so much one very great battle, as a constant succession of heavy 
battles and fights in the woods. Day and night were heard the 
1. W. T.— 22 



338 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

roar of cannon and the clash of musketry. Those not engaged 
in the perpetual conflict on the lines could scarcely sleep when 
the cracking of musketry ceased at times, so accustomed were 
they to the continued sound of guns. It was like a constant 
siege, filled up by never ending assaults, charging breastworks, 
taking bridges, maneuvers, reconnoissances, skirmishes, and bat- 
tles; then the siege, and the assaults on Atlanta itself, the flank- 
ing movements, and, at last, the end. "Atlanta ours, and fairly 
won," flew across the wires to Washington, and the first act in 
Sherman's campaign was finished. It had been a tremendous 
succession of hard fighting — a constant battle for four months. 
The great commander on the James realized the magnitude of 
the events. u You have accomplished," said Grant, in a letter to 
Sherman, "the most gigantic undertaking of any man in this 
war." 

And what next? Grant wrote from Virginia. And he, too, 
asked what next. What had Sherman gone to Atlanta for? 
Could he stop there? " It is now my opinion," wrote Sherman 
to Grant, " that I should keep Hood employed, and put my army 
in fine order for a march on Charleston (the sea)." These are the 
first written words about the " march" to be found in the records 
of the war. And again he wrote: " I would not hesitate, were 
there a new base in our hands at the coast, to cross the state of 
Georgia with 60,000 men." The possibility of a march some- 
where seaward had, as said, been looked forward to when the 
army left Chattanooga. Where he should strike, when he 
should strike, or whether new events would permit a march at 
all, were left wholly unsettled in his mind in the beginning; 
but at Atlanta, Sherman conceived the true plan, and adopted 
the direction he would take, if only Hood would be foolish 
enough to march his confederate army north into Tennessee, 
where Thomas stood waiting to welcome him. At last Hood did 
move, and northwards, and, to make the blunder more visible, 
Jefferson Davis himself rushed out to Palmetto, near Atlanta, 
and approved the plans of his general. Addressing the soldiers 
and the public, he pictured Sherman's army as now about to be 
lost. Advance he could not; and the retreat of Napoleon from 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 339 

Moscow was child's play compared with what would happen 
were the federal general to attempt to fall back. A scout took 
the speech to Sherman, and that moment he determined on 
his " march to the sea." Davis was commander-in-chief of the 
confederate armies, and his speech had convinced Sherman that 
the confederate President was as weak in generalship as he was 
strong in boasting. 

All surplus material and men were at once sent to the rear, 
and arrangements for another move in the brilliant campaign 
completed. 

The origin of the plan of marching to the sea was Sherman's 
own, as much as was the execution of it, spite of certain malevo- 
lent critics who sought to rob him of this part of the glory. 
" The honor is all yours," wrote President Lincoln, when suc- 
cess had crowned the march; "none of us went further than to 
acquiesce." Nothing but the overzeal of one of Gen. Grant's 
admirers, or the malice of some jealous enemy, could have thought 
to put the origin of the march in doubt. 

To Halleck, Sherman now telegraphed: " I prefer for the future 
to make the movement on Milledgeville, Millen, and Savannah;" 
and almost the same day he telegraphed Gen. Grant: " If Hood 
goes north, why will it not do for me to leave Tennessee to 
Thomas and his forces at Nashville, and for me to destroy 
Atlanta and march across Georgia to Savannah or Charleston?" 
Grant advised him first to follow Hood, destroy him, and after- 
ward move toward the sea. Thomas opposed the idea of moving 
south entirely, as did others. In no direction was the undertak- 
ing much encouraged. Events were drifting slowly; Hood was 
starting northward, and then Grant telegraphed to Sherman on 
November 2d, 1864: u I say go on, then, as you propose." Being 
authorized to act, Sherman wrote to Thomas, speaking of the 
march: "I want all things bent to the plan. I purpose to 
demonstrate the vulnerability of the South, and make its inhabi- 
tants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms." 
And again, to Thomas: " The only hope of a southern success is 
in the remote regions, difficult of access. We have now a good 
entering wedge, and should drive it home. We must preserve a 



340 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

large amount of secrecy, and I may actually change the ultimate 
point of arrival, but not the main object. 1 ' Still again to 
Thomas: "Let us keep Beauregard busy, and the people of the 
South will realize his inability to protect them. 1 ' Beauregard 
was kept busy — very busy. He, like Hood, and all the rest of 
the Confederates there, had, in fact, been having a busy time of 
it for many months, opposing soldiers like Thomas, Schofield, 
Logan, Howard, Hooker, McPherson, Dodge, Blair, Morgan L. 
Smith, Cox, Gresham, and others of the great fighting heroes of 
the Atlanta campaign. 

To Stanton, Sherman now wrote: " I will wait a few days yet 
to see what head he (Hood) makes about Decatur, and may } T et 
turn to Tennessee, but it would be a great pity to take a step 
backward." On the same day, learning more of Hood's starting 
north, he telegraphed again to Washington: " I am pushing my 
preparations to march through Georgia." He had telegraphed to 
Thomas that " things must be bent to his plan," and they were 
bent. Messages were sent in every direction to urge haste in 
getting the trains and the sick to the rear; no neglect, no delay 
of any kind, would be brooked for a moment. Even apparent 
delays, and the temper of the commander flew to a white heat, 
no matter who might be at fault. Certain condemned horses and 
cavalry trains had been ordered sent back. Somebody had 
blundered, or not been prompt. " I gave ten days 1 notice,' 1 
exclaims the general, in a furious telegram to the chief of cav- 
alry, " and I want to know who is responsible for this outrageous 
delinquency ? 1 hope all will be killed or captured. Be ready 
for the saddle at an hour's notice/ 1 Here is the laconic order 
for the final destruction of Atlanta: 

" Capt. Poe: 

" You may commence the work of destruction at once, but don't us© 

fire until towards the last moment. 

" Sherman." 

In burning Atlanta, he was fighting the Rebels, not conciliating 
them. Of course, a roar followed all over the South, finding a 
little echo, even in the North. It did not disturb him. " If 
my reasons, 1 "' he wrote to Washington, " are satisfactory to the 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 341 

United States, it makes no difference whether it pleases Gen. 
Hood and his people or not." He was now ready for the start. 
Jefferson Davis was apparently doing his best to aid him on his 
way. Cotton was no longer to be "king " in the South. Jeffer- 
son Davis had said it. " Corn " must grow on every field. It 
must have been with a grim smile that Sherman wrote to Secre- 
tary Stanton: " Convey to Jefferson Davis my personal and offi- 
cial thanks for abolishing cotton, and substituting corn and 
sweet potatoes in the South. These facilitate our military plans 
much, for food and forage are abundant. 1 ' 

Just then came the news of Sheridan's victory in the East. 
Sherman had been killing men all summer, and he liked to see 
war of just the killing kind, the more desperate the better, and 
the sooner ended. The kindest hearted man in the world, he 
still liked Sheridan's way. " I am satisfied," he wrote the latter, 
just before leaving Atlanta, "and have been all the time, that the 
problem of this war consists in the awful fact that the present 
class of men who rule the South must be killed outright, rather 
than in the conquest of territory. Hard bulldog fighting, and a 
great deal of it, remains yet to be done." Sheridan was one of the 
men he believed capable of doing it. The South had thrown 
down the desperate gage of battle. It was kill or get killed, and 
while Sherman, as his course always proved, pitied the South 
and would have given his life for honorable peace, nothing to his 
mind could bring that peace so quick as fighting in dead earnest; 
peace restored, no man in all America so prompt to offer the 
hand of reconciliation. 

Sherman's first thought, after Atlanta had been taken, was to 
march on Augusta, connecting with the coast by the Savannah 
river. "If you can manage," he writes to Grant, on September 
10th, "to take the Savannah river as high as Augusta, or the 
Chattahoochee as far up as Columbus, I can sweep the whole 
state of Georgia." 

In fact, three routes seaward had been considered by Sherman: 
the line direct south, striking the sea at Appalachicola; the line 
to Augusta, and the middle, or southeast one to Savannah. 
Events proved the last the best in many senses; that route fol- 



342 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

lowed, Lee's array could be hurt the quickest, and it was Lee's 
army now, not Hood's, that Sherman was striking at. It was 
also time to choose. The whole Confederacy was waking to the 
danger of leaving him longer at Atlanta. The time had come, 
possibly, to drive him to death. Davis said it had come. Hood 
was reaching his lines of communication, and quietly putting an 
army between him and the North. Grant telegraphed Sherman 
on the 27th September, that an awful effort was being made to 
crush him at Atlanta. Three courses were open to him; to 
remain at Atlanta, and risk losing his supply lines; to turn back 
and follow Hood's army northwards; or to cut loose, march south, 
and destroy Lee's chances from his far rear. He had already 
determined, however, not to fight the old ground over again — to 
take no step backward, but leave Hood and his northern inva- 
sion to the competent hands of Gen. Thomas. 

The gigantic labor of supplying large armies from distant 
points can scarcely be realized. To feed Sherman's army about 
Chattanooga, from its supply base at Nashville, had required the 
labor of thousands of men and teams, and the use of one hun- 
dred and forty-five railway cars daily. That meant the use of a 
hundred locomotives and a thousand railway cars. The risk to 
supplies, with thousands of well-led hostile cavalry in the rear, 
was too serious to contemplate. A move somewhere from 
Atlanta was rapidly becoming not only the best thing to do, 
but a necessity, if the fruits of the last campaign were not to be 
lost. 

The reveille beat at four o'clock in the morning of November 
15th, 1864, and waked the sleeping soldiers about Atlanta to 
break camp and start, many of them, on their last campaign. 
Daylight saw sixty-two thousand two hundred and four men, 
with sixty-five cannon, moving in separate, but nearly parallel, 
columns seaward. The orders had been carefully given; every 
officer, every soldier, knew his place, and something in the very 
air told them they were starting on a march that would end with 
the closing of the war. Sixty-two thousand men was no small 
army to cut loose from a base and enter the lines of a hostile 
country, with no foothold but the ocean beyond. The last mile 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 343 

of the railroad behind had been destroyed; the last message, a 
good-bye and an "all right," had been telegraphed back to 
Thomas; the wires were cut, the last link lost communicating 
with the North. 

Passing the city in flames and ruin, Sherman rode forward, 
joined one of his columns, and the "March to the Sea" had begun. 

Three hundred miles southeast lay Savannah and the ocean. 
Toward this point all columns were headed, though greatly 
diverging at times, threatening important positions, like Macon 
and Augusta, right and left, and, by mysterious movements on 
the flanks, leading the enemy at the front to concentrate to-day 
in one place and to-morrow forty miles away. 

Two great wings, almost equally divided as to numbers, formed 
the marching army. The right was led by Maj.-Gen. Howard, 
and Maj.-Gen. Slocum commanded the left, with soldiers such 
as Blair, Davis, Williams and Osterhaus,* directing army 
corps, and veterans like Corse, Geary, Force, Ward, Mower, 
Morgan, Woods, Hazen, Smith, Leggett, Baird and Carlin, 
leading divisions, fighting men, every one of them, and 
the soldiers were veterans, hardened by scores of battles. 

Sherman's cavalry, kept under his personal direction, was com- 
manded by Kilpatrick — but in numbers, it was inferior to the 
cavalry of Wheeler in his front, and hanging on his flanks. The 
enemy possessed strong garrisons all along the seacoast and in 
the interior towns. Columns from these were liable to be con- 
centrated and thrown in front of Sherman at any hour; troops 
from Virginia, even, might be hastening, by train, to stop the 
invaders' way. If there had been audacity in conceiving the 
movement, and entering on the march, the utmost caution and 
vigilance were necessary to prevent surprise, detection of routes 
and concentrating of hostile forces at unexpected places, and at 
unexpected times. Possibly for safety, the cavalry force seemed 
inadequate, but the weakness was made up by a force never 
before known in war — the mounted " foragers." Every twen- 

*Maj.-Gren. G. M. Dodge, commander of the Sixteenth army corps, who 
had played so important a role in the battles of Atlanta, helping to make 
the march to the sea a possibility, was wounded, and home on leave of 
absence. Logan also was absent on leave. 



344 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

tieth man in the army was regularly detailed to scour the coun- 
try right and left, and sometimes front, for food and forage. In 
three days' time the greater number of these foragers had 
mounted themselves on some species of horse or mule, 
and the i; foragers 1 ' became a sort of irregular, or partisan 
cavalry — flying hither and thither, at all times, and in 
all places. They confiscated horses, mules, cattle, pigs, 
sheep, poultry, grain, fodder, potatoes and meat in such 
enormous quantities as to supply the whole army. Only 
occasionally were the regular rations iu the supply trains touched 
at all. The army was living completely off the country. The 
corn Jefferson Davis had ordered planted in the cotton-fields was 
feeding Sherman's soldiers. The " foragers" were becoming the 
historic personages of the campaign. They were men accus- 
tomed to danger, to improvising defenses, to fighting on foot or 
mounted, to ambuscades and open fields; soldiers of infinite 
resource, and it is doubtful if any cavalry in existence could 
have been half so useful to the army as Sherman's mounted " for- 
agers." Their irregularities, and they were not great, for disci- 
pline met them when they came to camp, were overlooked in 
the good that they accomplished. 

At times on the march, the whole army concentrated, as at 
Milledgeville, Millen, and at the approaches to Savannah, and 
diverged, or else marched in parallel lines, seldom more than 
twenty miles from flank to flank, keeping to the right and to the 
left of them, as protectors, the Savannah and the Ogeechee 
rivers, leading seaward. Sometimes the columns, as at Duncan's 
farm by Macon, met the enemy, and with a sharp battle hurled 
them back; or, as at the crossing of Briar River, where the 
cavalry met in severe engagement, fighting for a bridge, or when 
the advance ran on to the hidden intrenchments in the swamps 
outside Savannah. Unexpectedly, however, there was little 
fighting on the march; but fighting, of a desperate kind, too, 
might still occur at any moment. Once, the enemy's wires were 
tapped, and a dispatch captured saying that Bragg, with ten 
thousand men and part of Wade Hampton's cavalry, was leaving 
Augusta for Sherman's rear that very night. Day after day the 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 345 

invading army tramped along through the unknown country, 
their very whereabouts a mystery to the waiting North, whose 
anxiety, fed by false reports from Richmond, became intenser 
every hour. 

For twenty days the columns swung along with a steady step, 
and then, in the distance, they beheld the sea. The swamps, the 
woods, the intrenchments and the well-manned forts guarding 
the city of Savannah had been reached. Sherman's eyes strained 
for the white sails of the friendly fleet. They were not to be seen. 
His army lapped almost around the city, but there was no possi- 
bility of reaching the sea-side or the union ships. On his left, 
lay the swamps, the forts, and a rebel army; on his right, bris- 
tling with heavy guns, and armed with heroic men, frowned Fort 
McAllister. That captured, communication with the fleet were 
possible. Different troops begged the privilege to assault. Just 
before sundown of December 13th, a division of blue coats under 
Maj. Gen. Hazen, appeared from the thick wood skirting the ap- 
proaches to the fort. From the top of a rice mill across the 
river, Sherman, glass in hand, was watching the movement. In 
front of these men whose guns glistened in the slanting rays of the 
setting sun, stood a strong fort armed with heavy guns, pro- 
tected by a deep ditch, by continuous palisades and abatis, and 
by veteran soldiers. 

Sherman looked at the setting sun and feared the approach of 
night. " Signal Hazen to assault at once," he ordered. The 
little signal flag at his side fluttered a little, and was answered by 
Hazen's whole line advancing to the palisades. That moment 
the fort belched forth its artillery. Steadily the line advanced, 
spite of hidden torpedoes exploding under their feet, spite of the 
musketry and shells from the fort, and in a few moments entered 
the cloud of smoke made by the battle. For a minute, only the 
rattle of musketry was heard; all was darkness there, and then 
the cloud-vail lifted, revealing the Stars and Stripes planted on 
the fort. In fifteen minutes, Fort McAllister had been taken 
by assault. Such quick work had hardly been done in the war. 
That night communication was established with the fleet, and 
Sherman slept in Fort McAllister alongside the dj'ing and the 



346 IOWA IN WAK TIMES. 

dead. The second step of the march to the sea was finished, and 
from the whole North went up a prayer of thankfulness. The 
end of the war was now in sight. The resources of the South 
were gone; Lee's lines of supply were cut in two, and the confi- 
dence of the South in her leaders was turning into hate. For Sher- 
man to serve South Carolina as he had served Georgia, to march 
his army to the Roanoke, demolishing Charleston and Columbia 
on the way, would be to end the war. In a sense, Richmond 
was already taken by a force 500 miles away. Gen. Lee saw 
what Sherman's movements were resulting in. " It was easy to 
see," he writes in a private letter three years later: 

" Warm Springs, Va., July 27, 1868. 
"General Wm. S. Smith: 

********** * * * 
"As regards the movements of Gen. Sherman, it was easy to see that 
unless they were interrupted, I should be compelled to abandon the defense 
of Richmond, and with a view of arresting his progress, I so weakened 
my force by sending re-enforcements to South and North Corolina that I 
had not sufficient men to man my lines. 

"Had they not been broken, I should have abandoned thein as soon as 
Gen. Sherman reached the Roanoke. 

"(Signed) R.E.Lee." 

Sherman did reach the Roanoke or its neighborhood, and 
was but eighteen miles away when the evacuation of Richmond 
began. 

If the hopes of the South failed when Sherman reached 
Savannah, the spirits of the North were correspondingly buoyant. 
Grant himself, so reticent usually, hastened to lay a tribute at 
the feet of his friend : 

************* 

" I never had a doubt of the result when apprehensions for your safety 
were expressed by the President. I assured him that with the army you 
had, and you in -command of it, there was no danger, but you would 
strike bottom on salt water some place; that 1 would not feel the same 
security — in fact, would not have intrusted the expedition to any other 
living commander. I congratulate you and your army upon the splendid 
results of your campaign, the like of which is not read of in past history." 

Now, more than ever, Sherman and his army felt they were 
striking Lee's army from behind. Hood was no longer a factor 



THE MAECH TO THE SEA. 347 

in the game, and the force between Sherman and the Roanoke 
river was not a force to fear. It was Lee, Sherman was thinking 
of only. To Halleck, he wrote on the 24th of December: "I 
think my campaign of the last month, as well as every step I 
take from this point north, is as much a direct attack upon Lee's 
army as though I were operating within the sound of his artil- 
lery;" and to Grant, three days before Christmas he wrote: " I 
have now completed my first step, and should like to join you 
via Columbia and Raleigh. If you can hold Lee, and if Thomas 
can continue as he did on the 18th (referring to his battle of Nash- 
ville) I could go on and smash South Carolina all to pieces, and 
break up roads as far as the Roanoke." Grant did hold Lee, and 
Thomas did do as well as on the 18th, and Sherman did smash 
things all to pieces in South Carolina. He went to the Roan- 
oke and Lee went from Richmond. 

The war was done, and Sherman's victorious soldiers tramped 
on another 400 miles to Washington. The fighting had com- 
menced on the Tennessee river, the marching ended on Pennsyl- 
vania avenue, and whole divisions of the soldiers who saluted 
the President that afternoon of the grand review, had marched 
with their rifles on their shoulders a distance of almost 3,000 
miles. 

Iowa's part in the grand march to the sea, in its adventures 
in its skirmishes, and in its occasional fighting, had been 
prominent and honorable. The Iowa soldiers there were mostly 
veterans of many marches and of many battles. To them, the 
campaign was one grand holiday. The weather was good, rations, 
by foraging, were abundant, and the stimulus was theirs of a 
great excitement — a marching to new victories, and, in a sense, 
to new discoveries. The far interior of Georgia was like a 
sealed book to many of them, and they were about to open it 
with their swords. 

Fortunately for all concerned, there was but little hard fight- 
ing on the way. The boldness of the movement paralyzed the 
enemy, and Sherman's columns marched along as they chose. 
The opposition the South seemed capable of making at river 
crossings and other points of vantage was trivial in the eyes of 



348 IOWA* IN" WAR TIMES. 

Sherman's soldiers. The experiences of all the Iowa regiments 
were much the same — to-day in the vanguard, tramping and skir- 
mishing along — to-morrow at the rear, looking after the trains 
and the stragglers, of which there were few, and warding off the 
almost impotent blows of some stray squadron of rebel cavalry. 

When Sherman's right wing swung off to Macon and fought 
the little battle of Duncan's Farm, some of the Iowa soldiers 
were there as supports to Kilpatrick's cavalry. When the 
troops were tearing up the railroad, Gen. C. R. Woods's division, 
containing, among other troops, the Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, 
Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first Iowa, 
was placed as a rear guard. On the 22d of November, a rebel 
division came out of Macon and attacked a part of Woods's 
troops, led by Col. Walcutt. A severe little battle ensued and 
the Rebels were beaten. Many of the rebel soldiers constituting 
this attack, were students in a Macon college — young boys, sons 
of the aristocratic families of Georgia and the South, who had 
been sent to that quiet interior town to be far from the dangers 
of war. In an unexpected moment, war was on them. They 
were pressed into the service, and in the attack on Woods's 
division many of them were slain. 

Brave Gen. Corse of Iowa, of Chattanooga and Allatoona fame, 
led a division in the marching army, and his boys, among them 
the Second, Seventh and Thirty-ninth Iowa, achieved no little 
distinction for their rapidity in destroying the enemy's railroads. 
Gen. Elliott W. Rice also led a brigade in the victoriously march- 
ing army, where the soldiers tramped their fifteen and twenty 
miles a day as lightly as on some promenade. The famous 
Crocker brigade under Gen. Belknap, was there too, and on 
reaching Savannah was the first to strike and destroy the rail- 
road running to Charleston. Three miles back of Savannah 
the brigade was under a heavy fire of artillery, but by wading 
through a swamp and advancing on the enemy, Belknap's men 
soon silenced the skirmishers and the batteries that had been 
doing no little harm. One company of the Fifty-third Illinois, 
in the Fourth division, lost 11 men in killed and wounded by the 
explosion of a single shell from these same batteries. 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 349 

In two or three days the brigade found itself in a position pro- 
tecting a road at the left of the Seventeenth corps, with a strong 
eleven-gun fort in front of it. Here the Fifteenth Iowa acted 
as advance skirmishers, and, under a severe fire of artillery and 
musketry, the brigade drove the Rebels back and beyond a pond 
within three hundred yards of the fort. Arrangements were 
made to pass through the pond, and the order was given to 
assault the works on the morrow. The first advance of the 
skirmish-line on the 25th revealed the enemy gone, when the 
fort and its cannon fell into union hands. 

The Ninth Iowa had broken the last rail at Atlanta connect- 
ing Sherman's army with the North, and the Sixteenth Iowa 
was about the very first to strike the works of the enemy at 
Savannah by the sea. The Seventh Iowa, the Tenth, Fifteenth 
and Thirty-first, had all been slightly engaged in skirmishes by 
the way, and when Gen. Hazen's division assaulted and took 
Fort McAllister, the Tenth Iowa held and defended the road 
over which the enemy had hoped to get re-enforcements into the 
fort. All the Iowa regiments that had participated in the 
march, also engaged in the short siege of the city, and when 
Savannah fell, they marched on that more arduous campaign 
with Sherman through the Carolinas.* 

*During the march, and for many long months previous, the writer had 
been a-prisoner at Columbia, South Carolina. The gaining of any news as 
to Sherman's army marching through the interior of the South was most 
difficult. Newspapers were not allowed in camp. The prisoners all knew 
from rumor, however, and from the excited condition of the guards abo ut 
the prison, that "great things "were going on outside. A friendly negro 
who was allowed entrance to the prison camp was finally persuaded to secrete 
the morning newspaper in a loaf of bread which he was permitted to sell to 
one or two of the prisoners. Hungry as my little mess always were, the 
newspaper was more welcomed than the loaf of bread. It was always read 
to our little coterie in secret, and then destroyed. There was no difficulty in 
gathering from its troubled columns that Sherman's army was hitting the 
Rebels to the very heart. One chilly night, while tramping up and down 
the prison pen, there suggested themselves to the writer, the words of the 
lyric poem of Sherman's March to the Sea. They were adapted to music by 
a fellow prisoner, and sung daily by the prison glee club, along with the 
"Bonnie Blue Flag," " Yankee Doodle," etc; the singing of Southern songs 
being imposed as a condition in granting permission to sing the others. We 
didn't mind it, though. Rebel songs were better than no songs in such a 
place. One day an Iowa officer, Lieut. Tower of Ottumwa, who wore a 
wooden leg in place of the better one lost in battle, was exchanged. In the 
hollow of that artificial limb he bore many secret missives North from his 
comrades in prison, and among the papers was the " March to the Sea." In 



350 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

theaters and public places north, the lines attained to an unexpected approba- 
tion. As the lyric gave its name to the picturesque campaign it celebrates, 
and as it is the production of an Iowa soldier, it seems appropriate to reprint 
it in a book about Iowa men : 

Sherman's march to the sea. 

Our camp fires shone bright on the mountains 

That frowned on the river below, 
While we stood by our guns in the morning 

And eagerly watched for the foe — 
When a rider came out from the darkness 

That hung over mountain and tree, 
And shouted, "Boys up and be ready, 

For Sherman will march to the sea." 

Then cheer upon cheer for bold Sherman 

Went up from each valley and glen, 
And the bugles re-echoed the music 

That came from the lips of the men. 
For we knew that the stars in our banner 

More bright in their splendor would be, 
And that blessings from Northland would greet us 

When Sherman marched down to the sea. 

Then forward, boys, forward to battle, 

We marched on our wearisome way, 
And we stormed the wild hills of Resaca — 

God bless those who fell on that day. 
Then Kenesaw, dark in its glory, 

Frowned down on the flag of the free, 
But the East and the West bore our standards, 

And Sherman marched on to the sea. 

Still onward we pressed, till our banners 

Swept out from Atlanta's grim walls 
And the blood of the patriot dampened 

The soil where the traitor flag falls; 
Yet we paused not to weep for the fallen, 

Who slept by each river and tree; 
But we twmed them a wreath of the laurel 

As Sherman marched down to the sea. 

0! proud was our army that morning 

That stood where the pine darkly towers, 
When Sherman said: " Boys, you are weary, 

This day fair Savannah is ours." 
Then sang we a song for our chieftain 

That echoed o'er river and lea, 
And the stars in our banner shone brighter 

When Sherman marched down to the sea. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HOOD'S INVASION— OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1864. 

ALLATOONA, TILTON, RESACA, FRANKLIN, AND THE BATTLE 
OF NASHVILLE. 

One of the most desperately contested conflicts of the whole 
war, or of any war, took place at Allatoona, October 5th, 1864. 

When Atlanta fell and Sherman proposed marching seaward, 
the Rebels under Hood resolved on an invasion of Tennessee. 
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, came to the 
Southwest and in a public speech at Palmetto, Georgia, heralded 
to the world that Gen. Hood was about to do some great thing. 
How great, language almost failed the President to describe. It 
soon became a matter of belief among the southern soldiers, 
however, that Hood was to lead them to the fair fields and the 
rich granaries of the North. 

By the 27th of September, 1864, the rebel army, 40,000 strong, 
had passed Sherman's flank and was marching for his railroads 
in the rear. It was also marching for something else, farther 
north. Forrest, with some 8,000 cavalry, was already on a grand 
raid in middle Tennessee, doing much harm. There was nothing 
left for Sherman to do but to about-face and follow Hood, drive 
him away from the railroad, the federal line of communication, 
and, if possible, overtake him and give him battle. 

On the 5th of October, Sherman was at Kenesaw, and from 
its heights saw the smoke and flame indicating the destruction 
of his railroads for many miles rearward. Near here, too, he 
had learned that the fort of Allatoona, held by a small brigade 
under Col. Tourtelotte, was about to be attacked by 4,000 or 5,000 
troops led by the rebel general French. 

Sherman had on the day previous signaled across the hill tops 

(351) 



352 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

and over the heads of the enemy to Gen. J. M. Corse at Rome, 
to hurry across to the help of Allatoona,. By the most remark- 
able energy, Corse reached Allatoona at 1 a. m. of the 5th of 
October, just as French was about to move on the works. Alla- 
toona consisted of two redoubts, close together, on opposite 
sides of the deep railroad cut. These guarded the road, and the 
warehouses filled with army rations. Corse being the senior 
officer, took command. His whole force for defense numbered 
but 1,944 officers and men. 

Among these defenders of Allatoona were eight companies, 
some 284 men, of the Thirty-ninth Iowa, under Lt.-Col. James 
Redfield. These Iowa companies, with others of Rowett's brigade, 
were a part of the force Corse had in the night brought with him 
from Rome. 

Skirmishing outside the forts, in different directions, had com- 
menced long before daylight. Then came a little pause, when 
the rebel commander sent Corse an insolent demand for his sur- 
render within five minutes, intimating that unless he did sur- 
render at once, no mercy would be shown were the place taken 
by assault. Corse instantly replied, inviting the Rebels to take 
the forts if they could. 

The little force had already been distributed in and about the 
two forts in the manner best suited for defense. At daylight 
the Thirty-ninth Iowa and the Seventh Illinois were in battle 
line on the slope outside the west fort some distance, and facing 
west. Others held the fort on the opposite side of the railroad 
cut, and some were skirmishing on the slope east of the east fort. 
Close together as the two forts were, the cut between them for 
the railroad was a hundred feet deep and the light foot bridge 
over it, connecting the two redoubts, was soon under a con- 
centrated rebel fire. 

By 9 o'clock the Rebels had Corse's position about surrounded, 
and in half an hour the battle storm broke forth in a tremendous 
assault on the Thirty-ninth Iowa and the Seventh Illinois. The 
Rebels stormed up the slope, to where these two regiments stood 
with terrible determination, but by heavy volleys were struck 
and driven back. Again they charged on to the blazing line of 



hood's invasion. 353 

musketry, and again and again. The Ninety-third Illinois 
rushed to the assistance of the two regiments so nearly over- 
. whelmed, and for two hours the fierce battle raged there out- 
side the fort, with the Thirty-ninth Iowa desperately fighting. 
Then fresh troops of Rebels — a whole brigade, dashed on to front 
and flank of the devoted line, and drove it back toward the fort. 

The companies of the Thirty-ninth Iowa had been so stationed 
across the Cartersville road as to form a semi-circle, though 
their positions were separated by deep gullies and ravines. Capt. 
Chas. A. Cameron, with three companies only, was ordered to 
hold his position in the center and across the road at all hazards. 
His men occupied some hastily constructed rifle pits. Charge 
after charge was made on the companies at the right and left, 
till at last they are driven rearwards. Then with a concentrated 
force, and coming with a yell, the Rebels dashed for Cameron's 
position on the road. They passed over the rifle pits like a hur- 
ricane, and turning upon the men there, killed, wounded or cap- 
tured all but nine. The color guards were all shot down or 
bayoneted before they would give up the flag. Color-Sergt. 
Armstrong beat the Rebels nearest him over the head with his 
flag-staff, till shot down and captured. Cameron, with his 
handful of men, escaped to the main fort to join the remainder 
of the regiment in the conflict to ensue for its possession. 

"Had not the Thirty-ninth Iowa fought with the desperation it 
did," says Gen. Corse, "I never would have been able to get a 
man back inside the redoubt, as it was their hand to hand conflict 
and stubborn stand that broke the enemy to that extent he must 
stop to re-form, before undertaking the assault on the fort." 

Under cover of the blow given the enemy by this desperate 
and hand to hand conflict, what remained of the little fighting 
band fell back into the fort. 

It was now eleven o'clock, and " the fighting," says Corse, 
" had been of a most extraordinary character." For two hours 
and a half, three thin regiments attacked in three directions, 
had held nearly a whole rebel division at bay — not only held 
them at bay, but had inflicted very heavy loss on them. It 
had been done at a terrible sacrifice to the brave heroes who held 
I. W. T.— 23 



354 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the line. Col. Redfield, the gallant leader, was slain, his body 
pierced by four rifle balls. Dead too, were Lieutenants Oliver C. 
Ayres, Newton P. Wright and John P. Jones, of the Thirty- 
ninth Iowa and many brave officers and men of the Seventh Illi- 
nois. Many of the brave men of that fiery line fell in death as 
heroes, many with bitter wounds. "The extraordinary valor of 
the Thirty-ninth Iowa and Seventh Illinois" says Corse, " saved 
to us Allatoona."" 

The breathing spell required by the enemy to reorganize his 
lines after the valorous fight, gave Corse a little time to fill his 
trenches and line his parapets with brave men, before the fort 
could be assaulted. Every protected spot, every hollow, every 
hole and trench at some distance from the fort was filled by 
Rebels. Every tree, every log and every stump in sight hid an 
enemy, and soon a constant, withering fire was poured into the 
fort from three different directions. It was almost impossible 
for a union soldier to look over the parapet and live. The 
ditches were raked by an enfilading fire, and the little fort was 
being filled with the dead and dying. Once an assault was made 
on the fort in force, but the well manned guns of Corse poured 
out such loads of grape and canister as to make it impossible for 
a column to approach close to the fort and live. The union offi- 
cers, brave to rashness, urged their men above the parapets, and 
setting the example themselves, were shot down in their tracks. 

Amidst it all, Sherman, away off on Kenesaw mountain, know- 
ing that the battle was raging, for he heard the cannon and saw 
the smoke of conflict, was waiting and watching in extreme sus- 
pense, and vainly trying to catch a view of the signal flag at 
Allatoona. " Once the tell tale flag," says Gen. Sherman, " was 
seen through an embrasure." It was only a faint glimpse 
through the smoke of battle, but at last were read the signal 
words, " Corse is here." Quickly was signaled back, far over the 
valley, the tree tops, and over the heads of the assaulting foe, 
" Hold the fort, for I am coming." * 

Already troops from Kenesaw were hurryiug by forced march 

♦Sherman's signal, "Hold the fort, for I am coming," gave origin and 
title, later, to one of the most famous Gospel Hymns of the English language. 




MAJ. GEN. JOHN M. CORSE. 



hood's invasion. 355 

from Sherman to the rescue, and the little band fighting inside 
the fort, though their leader himself was shot down, and though 
their comrades by scores lay about them dead and dying, took 
cheer and held the works. Fierce and murderous, the concen- 
trated fire of the enemy swept round the fort, but the men held 
on, fighting and firing as best they could. Once the ammuni- 
tion for the artillery gave out, when a brave man volunteered to 
cross the cut and the foot bridge under a heavy fire and carry 
his arms full of ammunition from the other redoubt. Once the 
enemy concentrated behind a house on the ridge in front. 
Before a cannon in the fort could be brought to bear on them, 
piles of dead and wounded had to be carried away from behind 
an embrasure, when the grape shot and the balls the volunteer 
carried over the cut, were hurled into the enemy. The con- 
fusion following among the Rebels was great, and the men in the 
fort, jumping to the parapet, so filled the ridge with bullets that 
the enemy failed to reorganize. Their line weakened, and leav- 
ing their dead and wounded, they shortly fled from the field. 
Allatoona was saved — saved by heroism. 

While all this fighting had been going on, in and around the 
west redoubt, Col. Tourtelotte had held the east redoubt, and not 
only repulsed the assailants, but had brought troops across the 
cut under a concentrated fire, to the aid of Corse. Both Gen. 
Corse and Col. Tourtelotte were badly wounded. Indeed, almost 
everybody there seemed to bear off the scars of that hard conflict. 

Out of the 284 men engaged of the Thirty-ninth Iowa, one 
hundred and sixty-five, or nearly three-fifths, were killed 
wounded or missing. Out of 10 officers with Redfield's little 
command, 5 were killed and 2 wounded and captured, leaving 
but three for duty. These were extraordinary losses, but the 
sacrifice of Iowa men on that day helped to make the name of 
Allatoona famous in the annals of war; while with its glory 
will be connected the names of Redfield and Corse — represen- 
tative examples of the valor of Iowa. 



356 IOWA IN" "WAR TIMES. 

TILTON— OCTOBER 13. 

Still determined on destroying Gen. Sherman's communica- 
tions, Hood kept a part of his forces busy attacking the union 
block houses along the railroads, and the little bands of railroad 
guards, wherever he could find them. The desperate affair of 
Allatoona had not been enough for him, and on the 13th of 
October, a large rebel force under Gen. Stewart was directed to 
capture, if possible, the block house at Tilton. 

The place was defended only by the Seventeenth Iowa infan- 
try under Lt.-Col. S. M. Archer. He placed 75 men in the 
block house and left the remainder, less than 300, to defend the 
ditches outside. The block house was built of heavy logs, and 
could resist musketry, and light, but not heavy artillery. 

At daylight, the pickets were fired on, and slowly fell back to 
the trenches and block house, from which they kept up so steady 
a fire as to hold the Rebels well at bay. Before noon, a sum- 
mons to surrender was sent in by flag of truce, coupled with the 
threat that no prisoner would be taken alive, if the post were not 
yielded at once. Archer courageously declined the summons, 
and invited the Rebels to take the place, if they wanted it. He 
had erroneously believed the rebel column of attack to be with- 
out artillery. The fighting was resumed, and, shortly, some 
rebel guns, placed in a favorable position on a hill near by, sent 
some cannon balls crashing into the timbers of the block house. 
This producing no visible effect, the resistance being as strong 
as ever, other cannon were placed in reach, and the work hotly 
shelled, the roof and timbers being knocked about like play- 
things. Once a bomb shell came through a port hole and 
exploded, killing, wounding or stunning nearly every man in 
the place. The smoke, too, was so great that it was impossible 
for the men to see each other. 

Longer defense was useless, and at 3 o'clock, after a gallant 
fight, Archer and his men surrendered. Capt. Horner, with 
some 30 men, had escaped from the position, before it was 
entirely surrounded. About 25 of Archer's men were more or 
less wounded and were nearly all carried to prison with the rest 
of the garrison. Though Tilton fell, its defense had been gal- 
lant in the extreme. 



THE FIGHT AT RESACA. 357 

RESACA. 

The post of Resaca, where Col. Clark R. Wever of the Seven- 
teenth Iowa was in command, also attracted Hood's attention. 
There were no Iowa troops at the post, but Col. Wever kept up 
the state's fair fame by a hot contest that resulted in the saving 
of the position. Hood was present in person, and a threat to 
butcher the garrison in case it refused to surrender was signed 
in Hood's own name. All the same, Col. Wever did not 
surrender. 

"If the place is carried by assault, no prisoners will be taken. 

"J. B. Hood, General. 1 ' 

This was the kind of warfare the defeated Rebels were reach- 
ing in their desperation, at the close of the year 1864. It proved 
how base a coin was the pretended chivalry of the South — a 
chivalry that led Indians into battle at Pea Ridge; that starved 
prisoners to death in the loathsome hells of the South, and pur- 
posed the massacre of resisting garrisons. 

Col. Wever, always a competent and a brave officer, disposed 
his little force in such a way as to mislead the enemy as to his 
numbers. He fired the same cannon from different embrasures, 
hung out flags at every point, and spread his garrison along 
many trenches. For hours, the Rebels kept up a constant fire of 
artillery and musketry, but feared to assault. The fight went on 
into the night and was renewed the next morning. But, as re- 
enforcements had reached Wever, and as Sherman was rapidly 
approaching, the Rebels sullenly withdrew. Their chance to 
massacre a brave little garrison had failed them. Col. Wever 
justly received the warmest praise from the great commander 
for his noble defense of Resaca. 

Gen. Sherman, reaching the neighborhood of Resaca with his 
forces, began to wonder what Hood really meant, raiding rail- 
roads and zigzagging over the country with an army of 40,000 
men, apparently not daring to stop and give battle. Scarcely 
thinking it worth while to follow his erratic movements farther, 
he determined to leave him to the care of Gen. Thomas, in 
Nashville. To Thomas he sent additional troops. The whole 
of the Twenty-third army corps under Schofield, the Fourth 



358 IOWA LN" WAE TIMES. 

corps under Stanley, and Wilson's cavalry, were all ordered to 
move to Thomas by way of Chattanooga. Thomas was to 
receive, also, beside the troops he could gather up in north Ten- 
nessee, three divisions of troops led by Gen. A. J. Smith, who 
was just finishing up a campaign in Missouri. Among Smith's 
troops, there were several Iowa regiments, but his command 
reached Thomas only in time for the battle of Nashville. 

Seeing Thomas so well supplied, and believing him strong 
enough to defeat Hood, should he cross the Tennessee north- 
ward, Sherman turned his back on the rebel army. He 
destroyed the railroad his men under Corse, Archer, Wever and 
others had so gallantly been defending, collected his scattered 
army, burned Atlanta, and started on the wonderful march to 
the sea. Hood, seeing him gone, moved north, crossed the Ten- 
nessee river at Florence, and at the crossing of the Harpeth river 
fought the battle of 

FRANKLIN— NOVEMBER 30, 
a battle that was, in some senses, the fiercest conflict of the 
war. Seventeen thousand Federals under Gen. Schofield, fight- 
ing behind slight breastworks, defeated, with fearful loss to the 
enemy, the whole of Hood's army of more than 40,000 men. 
There were no Iowa regiments at Franklin, but, as Iowa men 
were soon to engage the same desperate enemy, a glance at the 
conflict will not be out of place. 

Gen. Thomas, in contesting Hood's way north toward Nash- 
ville, did not expect to fight a great battle in the open field. He 
preferred to have ground of his own choosing, Avith his troops 
concentrated, and his defenses in order. A. J. Smith's corps had 
not yet reached him, so he instructed Schofield to check und 
delay Hood as much as possible, while slowly falling back. At 
Duck river and other points this had been done, and much man- 
euvering and no little fighting had taken place at different 
points as Hood pressed forward with a large army confident of 
victory. Thousands of his Tennessee troops rejoiced at the 
hope of again putting their feet victoriously on the soil of 
their native state. Whole regiments of Hood's army were to 
fight and be slain within sight of their very homes. 



THE BATTLE OF FKANKLIN. 359 

Thomas was at headquarters in Nashville, while Schofield, 
leading the army at the front, had fallen back to Franklin, a 
village lying in a great bend, and on the south bank of the 
Harpeth river. He halted there, threw up a semi-circular line of 
breastworks, and commenced crossing his trains over the river. 
The ground iu front of Franklin, over which the rebel army 
was to attack, was either nearly level, or, near the village, a 
gentle slope southward. There were no woods, trees, nor near 
hills to obstruct a perfect view of what was to become that 
October evening one of the terrific battle grounds of history. 

By 3 o'clock, the rear guard of Schofield's force beheld from 
some hills south of the town the whole of Hood's army rapidly 
marching forward in martial array. Schofield, himself, stood in 
a little fort on a hill on the north bank of the river, and with 
field glass in hand anxiously waited the assault. The whole 
line of the rebel army soon passed the hills and came out in the 
open fields, in full view of every union soldier there. With 
ranks formed, their rifles in their hands, the union soldiers 
watched in anxiety and suspense the rebel army passing into 
position on the line for attack. In almost breathless silence 
they looked on the long divisions of infantry marching and 
forming to right and to left in their very front, and so close 
that they could almost hear the voices of the rebel commanders. 
They saw the lines part and the batteries of artillery driven into 
place to unlimber and load, and could almost hear the words 
of the battery sergeants telling their men to drive home in the 
cannon's mouth the double charge of grape and canister. 

A little in advance of the center of the union lines, shielded by 
some slight intrenchments, stood a couple of Schofield's brigades 
under Wagner. They were to fall back the moment an attack 
should commence. Back of Wagner, on the line proper, stood 
the brigades of Opdyke and Reily, in reserve. 

At 4 o'clock, in double and triple lines of brigades, the long 
lines of the enemy, at a double-quick step, approached Wagner's 
position. Contrary to orders, Wagner opened fire on them with 
his infantry, instead of falling back. There was a momentary 
repulse, when the overpowering numbers of the rebel line 



360 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

flanked him right and left, and with a yell charged over his works, 
driving his intrenchments to the rear. Pell mell they came on 
the run, infantry and artillery, foot and horse, flying toward the 
intrenchments. After them, like an avenging avalanche, came 
the columns of the exultant Rebels. For a moment, it looked as 
if the center of Schofield's army were broken in, and all lost. 

There was other mettle on that union line, however. Quick 
as thought, and without waiting for orders, Opdyke, at the head 
of his brigade, and White, leading Reily's second line, sprang to 
the front. " Forward, men — Charge," cried Opdyke, and the 
union men, with fixed bayonets, rushed on with a yell, driving 
back the fierce assailants. In an almost hand to hand conflict, 
they retook the ground, retook the lost cannon, left no Rebel 
within that line who was not dead or wounded, replanted the 
union colors upon the breastworks, and restored the center of 
the union line. 

On right and left and center the rebel assaults continued. 
Such recklessness of life, such desperateness, had scarcely had a 
parallel in the war. Rebel generals, commanders of divisions, 
of brigades and of regiments, rushed on to the fiercely defended 
breastworks, to certain death. 

Thirteen rebel generals were killed or wounded, and nearly 
6,000 lesser officers and private soldiers, dead or mangled, 
filled the ditches or the slopes by the parapets. Gen. Adams 
dashed on to the works at the head of his brigade, jumping his 
horse over the ditch. Rider and horse lay dead on the very top 
of the parapet. Pat Cleburne, the fighting Stonewall Jackson 
of the West, led his division close up in the slaughter and died 
among his men. 

" Take those lines," cried Hood, when the battle first came 
on, " and there is nothing to stop you this side of the Ohio river. 1 ' 
His men believed it, and fought as if the life of the whole Con- 
federacy were hanging in the balance. Night came, but the 
darkness brought no lessening of the battle. Close together, in 
places but twenty-five yards apart, each protected by slight bar- 
ricades, the lines of men stood, and, by the flash of the muskets, 
fired into each other's faces. The little space between those 



THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 361 

barricades that night was a sea of constant flame. The noise and 
the din of the battle were deafening. Still the useless assaults 
went on — but not a foot of union ground was yielded on the 
line. At last, worn out, dispirited and defeated, the brave men 
of Hood's army ceased their firing. 

It was 9 o'clock. In the darkness that night, the union army 
quietly crossed the Harpeth river and rapidly retreated on Nash- 
ville. Toward morning the Rebels discovered the union lines 
gone, and the torchbearers and the surgeons filled the ditches 
and the plain, hunting their dead and wounded comrades. 
Touching were the incidents of that early morning, for some of 
the rebel officers were found dead at their own door-yards. The 
carnage among Hood's army was so great as to move the whole 
Confederacy; and the desperateness of the conflict was a proof 
of what the hot blood of the South could do for the cause it 
defended. Schofield's loss was a little over 2,000. 

A more heroic defense had not been made by northern soldiers, 
and with them, as with the soldiers of the South, the name of 
Franklin became a synonym for deadliest conflict. Thirty-three 
battle flags were carried back to Nashville by the federal soldiers 
as proof of their heroism in the battle. 

THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE— DEC. 15 AND 16, 1864. 

Spite of the result of the awful combat of Franklin, Hood's 
army pursued Schofield's soldiers to the walls of Nashville. 
Gen. Grant, in Virginia, had desired Thomas to halt and fight 
Hood far in advance of Nashville, and was greatly provoked, as 
was the President, that Thomas, with a force of 70,000 men, 
should now sit still and permit himself to be besieged. Thomas 
waited, however, first for shoes for his horses; next for more 
re-enforcements, and lastly for better weather. 

Grant feared that Hood might flank Nashville and lead his 
army to the Ohio river. When Thomas still delayed, spite of his 
orders to move out of Nashville and attack the enemy, Gen. 
Logan was started West to relieve him of his command. Grant 
also started for Nashville, fearing the delays there would bring 
on a disaster. 



362 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Logan had got as far as Louisville, and Grant as far as Wash- 
inton, when the news came that Thomas had at last moved. It 
was the morning of the 15th of December, that, taking advan- 
tage of a fog, Thomas's splendid lines advanced for battle. His 
re-enforcements had all reached him. Among others, was the 
command of Gen. A. J. Smith — three whole divisions, fresh 
from chasing Price out of Missouri. 

Smith brought with him several of the hard fighting Iowa 
infantry regiments. And there were, already at Nashville, three 
regiments of Iowa cavalry and an Iowa battery. This cavalry 
entered the battle dismounted, and fought as infantry. It 
included the Second, the Fifth and the Eighth regiments. 

Col. Gilbert of the Twenty-seventh. Iowa infantry, afterward 
a brigadier general, led a brigade of Indiana and Illinois troops 
and the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-second Iowa. Col. Hill of 
the Thirty-fifth Iowa led a brigade in which was included his 
own regiment and the gallant Twelfth — the regiment that with 
the Eighth and the Tuttle brigade at Shiloh, had stood like a 
rock till sundown; the regiment that had fought with such 
daring at Tupelo, and was now again ready for the charge. 

Smith's troops were given the place of honor, at the right, in 
the battle of Nashville. At Thomas's center stood the troops of 
the Fourth corps, commanded by Gen. Wood, while Gen. Scho- 
field, with his Twenty-third corps, was at the left. To Smith's 
right was a part of the cavalry of Gen. Wilson. 

Hood's army occupied the hill, forming a semi-circle imme- 
diately south of the city, with an advanced salient at " Mont- 
gomery's Hill," only 600 yards in front of the union center. 

There had been a week of wretched weather — cold, snow, ice 
and sleet, and the troops of both armies, but especially those of 
the South, thinly clad and poorly fed, suffered intensely. Now a 
thaw had come, and mud took the place of the ice on the hill 
sides. 

On the evening of December 14th, the troops at our left 
attacked Hood's extreme right and pushed it back. It had only 
been a feint, however, for the real movement of Thomas was to 
be the advance of A. J. Smith's divisions including the Iowa 



THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 363 

regiments, on the right, the next morning. Early on the 15th, 
Smith's lines pushed out on the Hardin pike, to flank the rebel 
left wing. Hatch's dismounted cavalry, moving with Smith, 
first struck the enemy and by a quick assault, and with the aid of 
McArthur's division of Smith's command, carried two redoubts, 
capturing artillery and prisoners. At the same time the Fourth 
army corps, under Wood, had advanced at the center. At noon, 
Sidney Post's brigade of Wood's command gallantly stormed 
and carried Montgomery's Hill, while, reaching over and joining 
with Smith on the right, the center troops assaulted and carried 
Hood's entire line of breastworks. 

It had been a great victory that day, but the battle was not 
over. Much artillery and many prisoners had been captured and 
sent to the union rear, and there had been hard fighting, charg- 
ing and storming from one end of the line to the other. The 
Iowa regiments, too, had done their share of the work. 

By the next morning, when the battle was renewed, Schofield's 
corps was moved around to Smith's right. Wood, in the center, 
promptly advanced that morning and drove the Rebels at his 
front eastward over the Franklin pike. Then, in conjunction 
with Smith at his right, he pushed on to Hood's new lines at 
Overton's Hill, five miles below Nashville. Gen. Schofield's 
troops at Smith's right were now in position to strike the rebel 
left flank, and the union cavalry, fighting dismounted, was rap- 
idly passing to the rebel rear and threatening all their lines of 
escape. 

Far to the union left, Gen. Steedman was also closing up with 
the main line, and with a brigade of colored troops would soon 
assault Overton's Hill on the left, while Wood's men should 
assault it directly in front. 

The whole union line advanced to within five hundred yards 
of the new rebel breastworks. At the given signal, Post's brig- 
ade made the charge on Overton's Hill. Met by a terrible fire 
of grape and canister, the assaulting column, cut all to pieces, 
and its leader badly wounded, had to fall back. The charge had 
failed. 

Instantly, however, the lines of Smith and of Schofield and of 



364 IOWA IN" WAE TIMES. 

Wilson's cavalry, charged farther to the right, and went over the 
rebel works with a 3 r ell. Again the rallied troops of Wood and 
of Steedman pushed to the assault of Overton's Hill, and spite of 
a terrible resistance crossed the abatis and took the works. In 
five minutes time, Hood's army of the Tennessee was defeated, 
demoralized, and flying for the Harpeth hills. It had lost in the 
two days battle, 53 cannon and 4,500 prisoners. The loss in 
killed and wounded is not definitely known. Hood's invasion of 
Tennessee had come to a tragic end. 

Thomas's losses in the battle were 3,057, not quite 400 of these 
being killed. 

The part of the Iowa regiments in the fight had been a most 
creditable one. They were on the hottest positions of the field 
of battle, and participated in the heroic events of the two days. 

Col. Gilbert's brigade, including the Twenty-seventh and 
Thirty-second Iowa, were at the left of Smith's line. On the 
first day of the fight it moved forward, skirmishing under a heavy 
artillery fire, and followed close on the Fourth army corps when 
it carried the enemy's works at its fort. The next day at four 
o'clock, after having been under a heavy artillery fire for hours, 
the command received the order to charge the works. It was 
done in gallant style, Lt.-Col. Jed Lake leading the Twenty- 
seventh Iowa, and Lt.-Col. Eberhart the Thirty-second. In this 
charge over the enemy's intrenchments, the Thirty-second Iowa 
captured a battery of five guns and many prisoners. Its own loss 
was some 25 in killed and wounded. The Twenty-seventh lost 
12 wounded. 

Col. S. G. Hill's brigade, including among other troops the 
Twelfth Iowa under Lt.-Col. Stibbs, and the Thirty-fifth Iowa 
under Maj. Dill, also moved forward early on the 15th. After 
much skirmishing during the day it pushed close up to a well 
armed redoubt of the enemy on the Hillsboro pike, five miles 
from town. At four o'clock, the brigade was ordered to advance 
and storm the work. The men of the command started up the 
slope of the hill with a yell. Before reaching the crest, the 
enemy retired with his guns to a second redoubt, to the right 
and rear, and from this position poured a raking fire into the 



THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 365 

charging line. Just as the brigade entered the first fort, the 
noble Col. Hill, leading it on, was struck by a minie ball and 
instantly killed. His death was a severe loss and created some 
confusion; but Lt.-Col. Stibbs of the Twelfth instantly assumed 
temporary command, re-formed the line and kept up from the 
fort a heavy fire on the enemy. At the same moment, a part of 
the Seventh Minnesota under Col. Marshall, and a part of the 
Twelfth [owa under acting Adjt. Reed, both of Hill's brigade, 
pushed forward and captured the enemy's second redoubt with 
its five cannon and its defenders. Part of the line, of Hill's 
brigade also, reached the rear of some rebel works, at that 
moment being charged by the Fourth army corps, and the with- 
ering musketry poured into the ranks of the breaking rebel line 
helped the Fourth corps to win its splendid victory. The loss 
of the brigade during the day had been 38 in killed and wounded. 

Early on the morning of the 16th, Col. Marshall of the 
Seventh Minnesota, now senior officer and in command of the 
brigade, led his command to a position on the line perpendicular 
to the road known as Granny White's Pike. After some skirm- 
ishing, they found the enemy in force and strongly fortified and 
meeting the union line with musketry and artillery. 

By four o'clock, Col. Marshall noticed the brigades on his 
right moving to assault the works, when without waiting orders 
he, too, sounded the charge. A terrific fire of grape, shell and 
musketry met the line as it dashed forward; but with a bravery 
and a persistence unsurpassed, it took the rebel works. Five 
guns were captured, with 2 battle flags and 400 prisoners. The 
loss of the brigade in the charge had been 11 killed and 89 
wounded. 

Twelve of this loss fell to the Twelfth Iowa. The battle flags 
were captured by Corporal Kaltenbauch and Private A. J. Sloan 
of the Twelfth. Two other battle flags had been captured by 
Privates Wivinas and Flint of the same regiment, but they threw 
them aside in order to pursue the enemy. The Twelfth Iowa 
had almost no line officers in the battle, the companies being 
commanded by sergeants. The splendid fighting of the regi- 
ment under such circumstances was worthy of record. Acting 



366 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

Maj. Knee, Acting Adjt. Reed, and Acting Quartermaster Moor- 
head were mentioned for valuable services on the field. So, too, 
was the chaplain of the Twelfth, Frederick Humphrey, and 
Color Sergeants Grannis and Clark, who were first to plant the 
colors on the enemy's intrench ments. 

The honors of the victory of Nashville were not to be borne 
by the infantry of the army alone. Hatch's cavalry formed at 
Gen. Smith's right, and fought through the heat of the conflict 
on foot. The Second, Fifth and Eighth Iowa cavalry regiments 
were among Hatch's fighting columns that day, and the Second, 
under Lt.-Col. C. C. Horton, won just renown. The gallant 
Col. Datus E. Coon of this regiment led the brigade. During 
the forenoon of the first day, the brigade, on foot, moved along, 
keeping time and line with the regiments on Gen. Smith's right, 
and subjected much of the time to a heavy fire of the enemy's 
artillery. Four miles from town they came in front of the strong 
works of the enemy posted«on a difficult hill. 

" Charge and take that fort," cried Gen. Hatch. These were 
not strange words to the men of the Second cavalry, nor to any 
other of the brave soldiers of that division, " With a shout," 
says Col. Horton, " the men sprang forward, and with a shout 
the fort was carried." Four brass Napoleon cannon, 60 pris- 
oners, and 30 dead and wounded Rebels lying in the fort, 
were the trophies of that quick charge. 

There was another fort seven hundred yards to the front and 
right, strongly defended on a high, conical hill. " Take that, too," 
came the orders to Col. Coon. Again, with the rest, the Second 
Iowa is on the run, facing a terrible fire of shot and shell. The 
resistance is great. The Rebels fight with a heroism unsurpassed. 
A hand to hand conflict ensues over and within the breastworks, 
and the fort is taken. The Second Iowa cavalry's flag is first 
to float there, but Hartman, the brave sergeant who planted it, 
lays down his life. 

" Major," he whispers, lying there dying inside the rebel fort, 
" Major, tell my friends I die doing my duty." It was only an 
Iowa cavalryman — a private soldier who lay there dying, but he 



THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 367 

was one of the heroes — martyrs, whose life blood has made 
famous the valor of Iowa men in battle. 

The regiment lost in the two charges 26 men and officers 
killed and wounded. Lieutenants Watson and Griffith, with two 
companies, made a brilliant charge of their own to the left of the 
fort, capturing almost as many prisoners as they themselves num- 
bered; while Sergt. Beeson, Bugler Anderson and Privates Trues- 
dale and Winn made a sabre charge, killing and wounding several 
Rebels, and capturing seventeen. There was no fighting at long 
range about that. It was a hand to hand fight with naked sabres. 

Again the next day the Second cavalry engaged in the battle 
with its division. In the pursuit of Hood, they overtook him 
in the Harpeth hills, and at the obstructed points fought hand 
to hand conflicts. At one point, Sergt. Colter, with Privates 
Heck, Black, and Anderson charged the rebel color guard in a 
desperate hand to hand struggle. Heck and Black were killed 
and Colter and Anderson badly wounded; but the colors were 
taken and eight dead Rebels left lying on the ground. It was 
by such fighting and by the storming and carrying of almost 
every hill and fort in front of the city, that the battle of Nash- 
ville was won and Hood's army nearly annihilated. 

Adjt. Sydenham, Maj. Schnitger and Captains Foster and Bandy 
of the Second cavalry, as well as many others, received honorable 
mention from their immediate commander. The commanders of 
regiments and brigades all through the army received from their 
chief officers the thanks they had earned by heroic fighting. 

The results of the victory and the pursuit were very great. 
Hood was not only chased out of Tennessee, his invasion a 
failure, but the unlucky campaign northward had cost him 
altogether, according to the report made by Gen. Thomas to 
Gen. Grant, not less than 13,000 prisoners of war — among them 
seven generals and a thousand officers of lower grades, 72 pieces 
of artillery, hundreds of battle flags, thousands of killed and 
wounded, including 13 generals, and over 2,000 men deserted. 
His army, in short, was about annihilated. 

The whole country gave thanks for the glorious victory, and 
Iowa had just pride in the part taken by her heroic men. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

TUPELO AND THE DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 
Summer of 1864. 

TUPELO. 

On the 14th of July, 1864, there was fought a battle to 
which historians have scarcely given a passing notice. It was 
the battle of Tupelo in Mississippi. The town giving the 
battle its name is some 60 miles south of Corinth on the Mobile 
and Ohio railroad, or 90 miles southeast of the city of Memphis. 

In the midsummer of 1864, the rebel general Forrest, with a 
strong column of troops, was exceedingly active in central and 
west Mississippi, and was threatening the federal garrisons on 
the Mississippi river. To check and defeat him, Gen. Sherman 
telegraphed for an army corps under A. J. Smith at Memphis, 
to proceed to La Grange, Tennessee, and march against the bold 
and dangerous raider wherever he might be found. Several 
Iowa regiments marched with Smith's column on the expedi- 
tion. They were the Twelfth, Fourteenth, Twenty-seventh, 
Thirty-second and Thirty-fifth infantry, with the Second, Third 
and Fourth Iowa cavalry, aiding in protecting the flanks of the 
marching army. The Eighth Iowa infantry, which properly 
belonged to the column, was left behind as a provost guard in 
Memphis, where it performed, later, valuable and heroic service. 
The Twelfth and the Thirty-fifth Iowa formed a part of the 
brigade led by Col. J. J. Woods, with Col. Hill commanding 
the latter regiment and Lt.-Col. Stibbs the Twelfth. The Four- 
teenth Iowa led by Capt. W. J. Campbell, the Twenty-seventh 
by Capt. A. M. Haslip and the Thirty-second by Maj. Jonathan 
Hutchinson, were all in the brigade of Col. James I. Gilbert. 

For a week after leaving La Grange, all proceeded very well, 

(368) 



TUPELO AND THE DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 369 

but as the column with its long train marched by Pontotoc, the 
enemy commenced to give trouble. Forrest had a large com- 
mand, and, seeing Gen. Smith far away from his base and bur- 
dened with a valuable train, determined to attack him. At 
three in the afternoon of July 10th, a raid was made against the 
flank of the train, protected by the Twelfth and Thirty-fifth 
Iowa and Seventh Minnesota, but though the engagement was 
hot for a little while the assailants were driven off with loss. 
The Twelfth Iowa had one killed and 11 wounded — among the 
latter, Capt. Sumbardo. The Seventh Minnesota had as many 
wounded, and its surgeon killed. 

On the morning of the 14th of July, Gen. Smith, expecting 
to be attacked in force, arranged his troops accordingly. 
Promptly at nine o'clock the rebel assault was made with mus- 
ketry and artillery. "Without once wavering," says Col. Gilbert, 
whose line received the shock, " our men returned the fire. 1 ' A 
fierce engagement was kept up for three hours, when the whole 
brigade charged the enemy, driving him and getting possession 
of his dead and wounded who lay thick upon the field. Some 
prisoners and a flag were also captured in the action. The fight- 
ing had been steady, and the veterans of the line showed the 
courage that had won them glory on many battle fields. 

The Twelfth Iowa lost a valuable officer in the death of Lieut. 
A. A. Burdick. The regiment's entire loss was 7 killed and 39 
wounded. The Thirty-fifth Iowa lost 3 killed and 33 wounded. 
The Twelfth had fought till its ammunition was exhausted, and 
being relieved by the Seventh Minnesota for a short time, filled 
its cartridge boxes and marched back coolly on to the line of 
battle. '* The men of this brigade," said Col. Woods, "proved 
themselves worthy of the highest praise for their heroic conduct, 
and the commanders of the regiments displayed the utmost cool- 
ness and bravery." His staff officers and his brigade surgeon 
were all complimented for their devotion to duty. The losses in 
Woods's brigade, nearly all killed or wounded, numbered 197. 

Col. Gilbert's brigade, including the other Iowa regiments, 
was not heavily engaged, though its services guarding the train 
during the day and moving to re-enforce threatened positions 
I. W. T.— 24 



370 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

were valuable. Its entire loss was some 25, half of whom fell in 
the Twenty-seventh Iowa. Among them was Lieut. Wm. Sims. 
The brigade advance was attacked once in the night, but it 
promptly drove its assailants to flight. 

Tupelo was a complete union victory over a famous general 
with a well equipped column of veterans. Early on the morn- 
ing of the 15th, another slight attack was made on a part of the 
union line, with some loss to several of Woods's regiments; but a 
sudden charge by his brigade put the Rebels on the run. 

That day, Smith's column marched to Old Town Creek, and as 
Gilbert's brigade was going into camp in the early evening, it 
was suddenly assailed with artillery and musketry. Instantly 
Gilbert's men were in line, and without waiting for further 
advance of the enemy, moved to the attack themselves. Close to 
the Tupelo road and in a field of growing corn, the line deployed 
with the Fourteenth and the Twenty-seventh Iowa in advance, 
the former led by Capt. Wm. J. Campbell and the latter by Capt. 
Haslip, — the Thirty-second Iowa and the Twenty-fourth Mis- 
souri following in the rear. The order came to forward double- 
quick, in line of battle. A line of skirmishers was sent ahead, 
and with yells the men of the Twenty-seventh and Fourteenth 
Iowa rushed through the corn-field, scaled the fences, waded two 
streams of mud and water nearly waist deep, pushed on through 
tangled brush and wood, and finding the enemy advancing 
beyond another field of corn, met him with cheers and blasts of 
musketry. Strong as the enemy's position was, at the top of a 
sloping hill, with the rough way between him and Gilbert's 
men, he soon yielded and gave way, when at another charge and 
with another yell, the union line went up and over the hill 
strewn with the rebel dead. The sun was intensely hot, as it was 
in all the campaign, and in the long charge through the close 
corn and the sultry wood, many fell from sun stroke or exhaus- 
tion, while the bullets of the enemy stretched 3A of Gil- 
bert's two charging regiments dead or wounded on the ground. 

By the 21st of July, Gen. Smith's column was back at La 
Grange. Forrest had been defeated, and the soldiers had experi- 
enced one of the hottest summer campaigns in their history 



TUPELO AND THE DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 371 

Tupelo and Old Town, like many other conflicts of the war, had 
possibly been of little service to the cause one way or 
the other. They were simply collisions, with no noticeable 
results save the lists of the dead and wounded. 

DEFENSE OF MEMPHIS. 

Shortly after the fight at Tupelo, Gen. Forrest, with three 
brigades of rebel cavalry, slipped around Gen. A. J. Smith, and 
made a midnight dash on the city of Memphis. It was the 21st 
of August, 1864. Forrest knew that most of the garrison was 
absent with Smith, and so counted on an easy victory and a sack- 
ing of the city. He had counted without his host. Among 
the few troops left in Memphis on provost duty was the Eighth 
Iowa, then under command of Lt.-Col. Bell. What happened 
that night in Memphis can best be drawn from the narrative of 
the commander himself. 

By 4 o'clock a. m., Forrest had made his way into the very 
center of the city. The Eighth Iowa was quartered in barracks, 
by companies, throughout Memphis. All the streets were 
patroled. Now commenced one of the most singular fights that 
occurred during the war. The morning was very foggy. One 
could not see, after daylight, more than a few rods, and there 
was fighting in every direction between patrols of the Eighth 
and the enemy. Lt.-Col. Bell, with two companies and the 
headquarter guard, attacked the main body of the enemy, then 
on Main street a little south of Court square. As the battle 
increased, the companies of the Eighth, one by one, were added 
to Bell's forces, as well as detachments of some other regiments. 
Soon the enemy gave way and retired to the outskirts of the 
city and gave battle again. Col. Bell now had from 600 to 700 
men. A sharp and spirited engagement took place, lasting 
about 30 minutes, with loss on both sides, and the enemy was 
again driven, but after retiring to the edge of the woods, 
again made a stand. Col. Bell, after sending an officer to report 
the situation to Gen. Washburn, pushed on after the enemy, 
and met him in the woods where a severe fight occurred. The 
Eighth suffered a loss of 18 to 20 in killed and wounded, includ- 



372 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

ing Lieut. Irwin, killed. The enemy being fully five times our 
strength, the Eighth was compelled to fall back to protect its 
flanks. Soon after a large force from the provisional camp, sent 
to the support of the Eighth, arrived, and when the united force 
moved forward, the enemy had mounted and left. It was now 
nearly noon and the Eighth went to breakfast. This was a 
brilliant affair for the Eighth, and was so regarded by the citi- 
zens of Memphis, for they presented a costly flag to the regi- 
ment, a pair of shoulder straps to Lt.-Col. Bell, and subscribed 
money to buy him a horse in place of the one captured. 
Among the wounded in the defense of the city were Capt. C. P. 
Searle, Lieutenants J. A. Boyer and J. L. Tinkham. Lieut. J. 
S. Irwin was killed while bravely doing his duty. Capt. Searle, 
and Mrs. Searle, who was visiting him, were wakened in the 
night by the yelling of Forrest's dreadful cavalry. They occu- 
pied rooms across the street from where some of the captain's 
men were quartered. A rebel cavalry yell at midnight was no 
pleasant thing to hear. The captain sprang from his bed, hurried 
on his clothes and ran into the street just in time for Mrs. Searle, 
on the balcony above, to see him captured and carried off by 
the bold invaders. Forrest's reputation for murder of pris- 
oners was well-known, and it was with feelings of horror Mrs. 
Searle saw her husband disappear in the darkness. During the 
conflict of the morning, however, the captain managed to escape, 
though at the expense of a sabre cut across the head. While 
Mrs. Searle had seen more of the adventures of war than is usu- 
ally accorded to even soldiers' wives, she had been courageous 
enough to go down into the street herself, and helped to dis- 
guise some of the convalescent soldiers in civilians' clothes, 
and secrete their watches and money in safe places. Memphis 
was Forrest's home, but he never essayed returning in that unan- 
nounced manner at midnight again. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 
Summer and Autumn of 1864. 

The Shenandoah was and is the richest valley in Virginia. 
It was the garden spot of the rebel Confederacy. There were 
times when Lee's whole army had been fed from there. It was, 
besides, so conveniently located for Lee, so thoroughly defended 
by nature, and so easy of approach from Richmond that it 
became from the very outbreak of the war a refuge place for 
rebel armies. It became, too, for the union army, so repeatedly 
operating there, a veritable " valley of humiliation." Post after 
post had fallen, general after general had been sacrificed, army 
after army defeated. All efforts to occupy the line, to cut off the 
great store house of Lee's army, had been futile, and the moun- 
tain-walled valley remained for three years as a fortress from 
which the national Capital could be threatened, and the south- 
eastern states be made liable to invasion and fire. It was a safe 
place to invade from, being easy to dash down to Harper's Ferry, 
cross the Potomac, march with fire and sword into Pennsylvania 
or Maryland, and when pursued, dash back into the fortress of 
the long, deep valley where only defeat waited the troops that 
dared to follow. The valley was equal to an army in itself. It 
protected Lee's flank, it helped to feed him, and it was a constant 
threatener of the North. It had been the grave of union gener- 
als and the disgrace of union armies. 

One Sunday morning, it was July the 10th of 1864, the bells 
of Baltimore rang out — not for holy service, but in a wild alarm. 
Once more a rebel army had broken out of the Shenandoah 
valley, had dashed across the fords of the Potomac and was 
knocking at the gates of the city. Every man was called to the 

(373) 



374 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

trenches for defense. Early's rebel army had not only crossed 
the Potomac river and met and crushed Lew Wallace's little 
army of defense on the way; it was at that moment marching 
straight on Washington city. There was great consternation 
in the North, for the capital was well nigh denuded of troops. 
Early had twenty thousand men. In Washington City there 
were not ten thousand effective men, not counting the armed 
quartermaster clerks and the drove of brigadiers who usually 
hung about the capital on one pretense and another. As may 
be supposed there was much alarm, for Gen. Early's advance was 
not three miles from the breastworks. His men might almost 
have ridden down Seventh street on the street cars, so close were 
they to the city. 

Fortunately for the country, a part of the Sixth army corps, 
under Maj.-Gen. Wright, hurrying by steamer from City Point, 
and a few of the Nineteenth corps from the West, reached the 
wharves at one end of Washington almost as soon as Gen. Early 
and his Rebels reached the north breastworks at the other end. 
Gen. Early hesitated a little as to assaulting. His troops were 
not all up, nor in position. In the meantime, about noon of the 
12th of July, one of the hottest days in the Washington calen- 
dar, Gen. Wright, supported by the batteries and forts, moved 
out against him. The rebel skirmishers were driven back a mile, 
and quite a battle was fought outside the city walls. 

It was a strange spectacle, too, for standing there on one of 
the parapets at the side of Gen. Wright, was the tall, gaunt 
form of Abraham Lincoln, watching the ebbing and the flowing 
of a fight that, if lost, might leave him dead, or a prisoner, 
and Washington in flames before night. Behind the parapet 
was Lincoln's cabinet, waiting and anxious, and scores of society 
ladies of Washington, excited and alarmed at the roar of the 
battle. Passing the parapets constantly, passing the President 
and passing the cabinet and the ladies, came ever and anon the 
litter-bearers carrying the bodies of the dead and the mangled 
forms of the living defenders of Washington to safe places in 
the rear. Such a review no president and no cabinet had ever 
witnessed before from the capital of their country in America. 



IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 375 

Outside the forts in the lines of the enemy was another tall 
form watching and helping events. It was the form of John C. 
Breckenridge, ex-Vice-President of the United States, standing 
there with his hands bathed in the blood of his countrymen, and 
in sight of the very dome under which but a few short years 
before he had taken his solemn oath to serve and defend the 
United States. History affords few parallels of so black a treason. 

Some 500 of the boys in blue were stretched on the grass, dead 
or wounded, outside the Washington intrenchments that blazing 
afternoon, and their sacrifices told to Early and to his traitor 
lieutenant standing there that Washington City could not be 
had for the asking. Believing that still other troops had reached 
Washington from Grant's army, Gen. Early sounded the retreat 
and that night marched for the fords of the Potomac river. 
Very shortly he was back safe in the Shenandoah valley. The 
country had had a very narrow escape. Gen. Wright had pur- 
sued Early, but the pursuit had been a failure, 

"Let us try Philip Sheridan in the Valley," said Grant to the 
advisers of the President. "I want Sheridan put in command 
of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself 
south of the enemy and follow him to the death," wrote the 
great commander to Gen. Meade on the 1st of August. Early's 
cavalry was already out of the valley over the Potomac again 
and raiding and burning Pennsylvania and Maryland towns 
whenever they could not instantly respond to the demands for 
enormous sums of money. 

Grant at once ordered a concentration of troops at Harper's 
Ferry at the mouth of the Shenandoah valley. He came back 
from City Point personally, to look into the situation, and at 
midnight of August the 5th, this telegram was sent to Halleck: 
" Send Sheridan by morning train to Harper's Ferry. Give him 
orders to take command of all the troops in the field within the 
military division." It was signed by Grant and dated at Monoc- 
acy, Maryland. 

Among those troops concentrating at Harper's Ferry, were 
three brave regiments from Iowa, the Twenty -second, Twenty- 
fourth and Twenty-eighth infantry. They had been sent east 



376 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

by ocean steamer from New Orleans. When they marched 
through the streets of Washington they created a sensation, for 
the fame of the fighting regiments of Iowa had preceded them. 
Now they were to march and fight and win new and grander 
fame with Sheridan in the valley. They were a part of the 
Nineteenth army corps under Emory. Gen. Grover commanded 
the division which included them all. It was the Second. The 
Twenty-second regiment was in the Second brigade, led by Col. 
Molineux of the One-hundred-and-fifty-ninth New York — the 
Twenty-fourth and Twenty -eighth in the Fourth brigade, led by 
Col. Shunk of Indiana. The first battle in which they engaged 
on the new scene was at the Opequon, or the battle of Winchester. 

The Shenandoah valley is one hundred and fifty-five miles long 
and twenty wide, and the river giving the valley its name is the 
principal tributary of the Potomac, entering it at Harpers Ferry. 
The valley is walled in on one side by the Blue Ridge mountains, 
on the other by the Shenandoah range. The principal towns 
following up the valley from Harper's Ferry are Winchester, 
Strasburg, Woodstock and New Market. In marching to Win- 
chester, the troops passed through Charlestown, notorious as the 
place where Gov. Wise and his frightened Virginians hung John 
Brown, and so helped to precipitate the war. This fertile valley, 
this Virginia granary,- was no longer to feed Lee's army. Its 
mountain fastnesses were no longer to serve as safe points from 
which rebel armies could invade the North. This outer wall of 
Richmond was about to fall. The disloyal people of the valley 
were soon to see their armies crushed, their rich fields desolated, 
their own roofs burning. War's heavy hand was to settle on 
the beautiful valley with a grimness and a ferocity seldom wit- 
nessed in America. 

To the Iowa soldiers marching and fighting there, the scene, 
though a fierce, was a picturesque one. They had tired of the 
slimy, snake-inhabited water of Louisiana and of the fatal mala- 
ria of its swamps. The purer air, the fresher water and the new 
scene stimulated them and they marched to battle as they always 
did, in the full assurance of victory. They were not used to 
defeat; so it was with them a quantity not counted on. 



IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 377 

By the middle of September, Sheridan, who had been waiting 
and watching in front of Winchester for the rebel general to 
detach a portion of his troops to aid Lee at Richmond, saw that 
the time to strike Gen. Early was at hand. " Our time had 
come,' 1 wrote Sheridan, later, and Gen. Grant had simply said, 
" Go in." The two armies, numbering, perhaps, from 25,000 to 
30,000 each, lay on opposite sides of the Opequon creek at Win- 
chester. Early's position was naturally very strong and he was 
besides well fortified. Notwithstanding all this, Sheridan deter- 
mined to attack. By 3 o'clock of the morning of September 
19th, the army was drawn out and marching for position. The 
troops had to make their way through a long narrow defile 
before getting into line proper, and then Early's front was to be 
attacked violently, while the Sixth army corps should move 
rapidly around and strike his left flank. His strong right flank, 
too strong for attack, was to be menaced. 

It was almost noon before the divisions could be wholly ready 
for the assault. Twenty minutes after noon the lines moved to the 
work, and a deadly battle, lasting most of the remainder of the 
day, raged on all the front. Advancing out of the woods and 
hills, the union army found an open uneven valley over half a mile 
wide before them, and the enemy posted behind woods and rocks 
on the opposite side. Spite of a heavy artillery fire and a nearer 
fire of musketry, Grover's division, including the Iowa regi- 
ments, charged and stormed on Early's first line, completely 
carrying it and killing and capturing many. The rebel general 
saw the day was lost unless the line could be recovered, and with 
tremendous ferocity, two fresh divisions were hurled on to the 
victors, while troops hitherto concealed, opened with musketry 
on their flank. Gen. Grover's line, and with it the division of 
Gen. Ricketts, gave way, falling back with very great loss. 
Whole brigades went to pieces, and regiments melted for a little 
time into mere squads of flying and wounded meni 

The day seemed hopelessly lost. And yet these were not the 
men to run from a battle field. Hot as the fire was under which 
they fell back, the re-forming of the line at once commenced. 
Among the broken pieces of regiments falling slowly rearwards 



378 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

was a squad of a dozen men under Capt. Rigby of the Twenty- 
fourth Iowa. Coming up to a battery, the little line halted, 
about-faced, and gave three rousing cheers. Instantly others 
were on that line — and others, and soon whole battalions were 
rallied and ready to move back over the valley from which they 
had been driven. 

On the left, the Sixth corps also had been repulsed, but were 
now holding the enemy at bay. At 3 p. m., the Rebels made a 
tremendous onslaught on the center and right, but were hurled 
back with great loss. Again, by 4 p. m., another heavy rebel 
line massed preparatory for an assault. Destruction seemed 
waiting the federal line, but at that moment was seen the 
column of Gen. Crook and his Eighth corps moving to strike 
the Rebels on their left flank and rear. Crook's column and a 
great body of cavalry came with a rush. There was a crash of 
musketry, and then again the lines of Grover's division and the 
rest of the Nineteenth and the Sixth corps sweep over the valley 
like an avalanche. In twenty minutes, Early's fierce fighting 
Rebels are on the run. The guns of the union army vomit 
a storm of iron into the retreating columns and the victorious 
cavalry follow the flying masses and hurl them beyond Win- 
chester. Darkness ends the pursuit. 

The losses at Winchester have been very bloody on both sides. 
Sheridan has had nearly 5,000 killed and wounded, including 
many high officers. The brave Nineteenth corps alone has lost 
1,956 men killed and wounded. Shunk's and Molineux's brig- 
ades, with the Iowa men, only 2,462 strong, have lost S59, or 
more than a third of their force. 

The rebel loss is estimated at 4,000. Early, too, has lost sev- 
eral of his best commanders, and with them he has lost the 
battle of Winchester. 

At Fisher's Hill, eight miles back of Winchester, Early halted 
in a position known to be the strongest in the whole valley. In 
two short days Sheridan's victorious army was at his throat 
again. The same tactics were pursued as before — a strong 
assault on the center and a tremendous infantry and cavalry 
dash on the left flank. It was only a matter of a couple of 



IOWA IN" THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 379 

hours, and the rebel army at Fisher's Hill suffered the fate of 
Winchester. 

Early, defeated and demoralized, with great loss of prisoners, 
artillery and trains, left the valley and fled to the mountains. 
Fisher's Hill had only been the culmination, or crowning 
point of the battle of Winchester. Sheridan lost some 400 
men at this closing fight. Early had lost 1,400. 

The union cavalry pushed on up the valley all the way to 
Strasburg, and when it returned to camp at Winchester, there 
was nothing left of the rich garden of Virginia, the granary 
of the Confederacy, but desolated homes. The barns, the mills, 
the factories, the foundries — everything in short, that could in 
any possible way aid in supporting Lee's army, was given to the 
flames. One more stroke, and the Shenandoah valley, as a war 
factor, was to be done for. 

Iowa's three regiments in that bloody battle of Winchester 
had done some terrible fighting. Their losses were very severe, 
but their valor won on new fields additional renown for the state 
they hailed from. 

The Twenty-second Iowa occupied one of the most desperate 
positions on the field. It charged for almost a mile through an 
open field under a galling fire and without protection of any 
kind, while others of the troops were more or less shielded by 
the nature of the ground. Though driven back, like its com- 
rades, it rallied under fire and helped to drive the enemy in fear- 
ful rout. Its losses were 108, mostly killed and wounded. 
Captains D. J. Davis, B. D. Parks and Sergeant Major Remley 
were instantly killed at the post of honor. Lt.-Col. E. G. White 
was wounded in the face by a piece of shell, and Lieut. James 
A. Boarts received a death wound. Lieutenants Hull and 
Jones were taken prisoners. All the officers of the regiment 
were mentioned for gallantry or for duty well done.* And the 
privates, whose names seldom figure in the rolls, were not less 

"These included Col. Graham, Lt.-Col. White, Maj. Gearkee, Captains 
Mullins, Humphrey, Cree, Clark, Shockey, Hartly and Morsman; Lieu- 
tenants Turnbull, Davis, Needham, .Messenger and Chandler, as well as 
Surgeon Shrader, Quartermaster Sterling, Hospital Steward Ealy and 
Commissary Sergeant Brown. 



380 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

distinguished for their valor. They were the men who, of all 
others, had climbed over the fiery walls of Vicksburg in the pre- 
vious year. Col. Harvey Graham had the honor of leading these 
brave men in the battle of Winchester. 

Fighting in the same division with the Twenty-second, were 
the Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-eighth Iowa, the two latter 
brigaded together with the Eighth and Eighteenth Indiana, 
and all led by Col. Shunk of the Eighth Indiana. The charge 
made by these regiments and the terrible fighting they experi- 
enced did not differ much from the charging, the retiring and the 
advancing again experienced by the Twenty-second. The whole 
division was led into the same galling fire that poured out from 
the rebel lines on the opposite side of the valley. After the charge 
over the valley, the recoil and the second advance, these regi- 
ments held their ground for two long hours under a terribly 
destructive fire of artillery on front and flank. A more difficult 
position cannot be imagined than a line of troops too far away 
to greatly injure the enemy and yet subjected to the constant 
and terrible fire of his cannon. 

Four of the line officers of the Twenty-fourth, Captains Rigby, 
Smith and Martin, and Lieut. Lucas, with their commands, had 
been posted at a dangerous point near the enemy and ordered to 
hold the place at all hazards. In the recoil, they were not 
relieved, but they were Iowa soldiers and the place was 
held. Seventy-four officers and men killed and wounded 
was the penalty the Twenty-fourth Iowa paid for unus- 
ual bravery at Winchester. Capt. Joseph R. Gould and 
Lieut. Sylvester S. Dillman, two of the bravest and best 
of Iowa men, were killed. Capt. S. J. McKinley and 
Lieutenants W. W. Edgington, Royal S. Williams, and 
Adjt. Dan. W. Camp were all severely wounded. 

Lt.-Col. B. W. Wilson led the noble Twenty-eighth Iowa into 
the battle. It fought under one of the most withering storms 
of shot, shell and canister the regiment had ever known, — and it 
was a veteran regiment, victor in many battles. Nearly 90 of 
the brave officers and men of the Twenty-eighth Iowa were 
killed and wounded. Half the line officers present were shot 



IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 381 

down in the fierce charge. " Not an officer flinched — not a man 
gave way, 1 ' said the brave lieutenant colonel in his report, and 
the list of the slain shows how nobly they fought. Capt. Scott 
Houseworth and Capt. John E. Palmer were killed — brave, noble, 
much loved men. Their death cast a pall of gloom over the 
whole regiment. Adjt. Joseph G. Strong, Capt. J. W. Carr, Lieu- 
tenants Chas. E. Haverly, D. S. Dean and J. C. Summers were 
all severely wounded. Less severely, were Capt. J. B. Wilson 
and Lieut. M. O'Hair. 

All of these Iowa regiments did their full duty in the fight at 
Fisher's Hill that followed so quickly on the heels of Winches- 
ter, but Fisher's Hill was a short contest and an easy victory. 
Only a few — barely a dozen men, were lost in the three regiments, 
and yet the Twenty-eighth had made a dashing charge on the 
enemy's works, driven him and captured a battery. 

For a month almost, Sheridan's army had a rest — a time to 
write letters, to read letters, to get supplies, to drill, and to 
rejoice over the waning hopes of the Confederacy. It had fallen 
back to the left or north side of Cedar Creek, and Sheridan had 
gone to Washington on an important errand. 

Early, full of chagrin at all his recent disasters, resolved on a 
desperate effort to wipe out the disgrace to his army. Lee, too, 
felt keenly the discomfiture of his Valley commander, and sent 
him some re-enforcements. Early himself had rallied and com- 
pletely reorganized his whole army, and now occupied the old 
lines about Fisher's Hill, some five or six miles in front of Sher- 
idan on Cedar Creek. Every day brought its skirmishes and 
reconnoissances on the part of one or the other of the two 
armies. By accident, Early learned of Sheridan's absence from 
his array, and now was his moment to strike. He had it given 
out that he was about to retreat up the valley, and, in fact, a 
reconnoissance of some of the union forces on the 18th of October 
showed one of his positions deserted. Gen. Wright, command- 
ing in Sheridan's short absence, determined to know definitely as 
to Early's retreating, and ordered a heavy reconnoissance to take 
place at daylight of the 19th. 

Sheridan's forces lay on the ridges just north of the creek — 



382 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the Sixth corps to the right, the Nineteenth in the center and 
the Eighth to the left. The lines were in echelon, the Sixth 
corps being considerably advanced on the left. Just before day- 
light on the cold and misty morning of the 19th of October, 
while the troops of a part of the Nineteenth corps that were to 
march out on the reconnoissance stood shivering in the ranks' 
some of the pickets of the Sixth corps at the left heard a mys- 
terious tramping in the woods that sounded like the marching 
of thousands of feet. Word was hurried to the rear. 

It was too late — the union army was surprised. Instantly the 
battle commenced on the left, and the Sixth corps men, whose 
guns, many of them, had not been loaded even, were soon in a 
rout flying rearwards. Part of the Nineteenth corps, Grover's 
division, including the Iowa regiments, was hurried over to the 
left to the aid of the Sixth, with orders to hold a ridge there at 
all hazards. The panic-stricken men of the Sixth corps and, soon, 
the noise of the old rebel yell, were not pleasant things to meet 
a body of soldiers going into battle; but heedless of panic and 
heedless of rebel yells, the division advanced and opened a heavy 
fire on the gray lines rushing and yelling through the grayer 
fog. It was of no use — the position was soon flanked, and the 
rebel yell was soon changed to a cry of ''Surrender! " Instantly 
the order was given to fall back, and the line went rearwards 
through an enfilading fire, so terrific, said an Iowa participant,* 
"that it seemed as if it would sweep us off the earth. Men fell 
like grass before the sickle, but the retreat continued and grew 
into something like a rout. Half a mile to the rear of our first 
position we made an attempt to rally, but the flanking column 
were upon us again and the retreat continued. In crossing a 
small stream with high, steep banks and filled with mules, wag- 
ons, etc., our disorder was complete. While thus retreating, the 
rapid firing of our batteries in our camp told us of a desperate 
conflict there — and now the silence told of the capture of the 
guns. It was a dark hour." 

So indeed it was. But soon the Sixth army corps from the 

*M. W. Cook, of the Twenty-eighth Iowa, to whom the author is indebted 
for valuable information. 



IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 383 

right, with 45 regiments of infantry, and 24 cannon, were seen 
moving up to the battle in splendid array. The defeated Nine- 
teenth corps moved back behind these fresh troops, and hurried 
to reorganize their lines. In half an hour the crash came against 
the splendid Sixth corps, which, spite of some fine fighting, was 
gradually beaten back with a loss of half its artillery. It took 
its new position at the right of the Nineteenth, and soon the 
whole line then suffered from a terrific cannonading by 40 
rebel guns massed at the point from which the Sixth corps had 
just fallen back. Then came a lull in the battle storm. The 
fighting of the Sixth corps had checked the enemy. The battle 
of the morning was over. 

At that moment Sheridan dashed on to the field from his race of 
twenty miles from Winchester town. The night before he had got 
as far as Winchester on his return from Washington, and all that 
night, while Early's rebel columns were creeping up on to the 
flanks of the union army, and all that early twilight of the 
19th, when his brave men were being routed and driven in 
disaster, Sheridan was peacefully, unconsciously sleeping. No 
wonder he mounted his charger when, at 9 o'clock, the sound 
of distant battle was heard. No wonder his galloping steed 
still hurried when the leader met the fugitives flying from 
his defeated army. Once on the field, his very presence 
reassured the men; but there was no sudden about-facing — no 
terrible oaths — no hurling of columns on the victorious foe. 
All that is the romance of the poet. The battle had been lost; 
but the foe was checked, and Sheridan simply prepared to fight 
again. Up and down the lines he rode, cheering the men and 
counseling the commanders. A new line was formed, a little 
rearward, and this time with the Nineteenth corps and the Iowa 
regiments at the right. At noon there was still the lull in the 
storm, save the occasional skirmishing, or the heavy artillery 
firing of the Rebels on Sheridan's men moving into position. 

It was about 1 o'clock, and Sheridan's lines were sufficiently 
in order to repulse an attack on the Nineteenth and a part of the 
Sixth corps. By 4 o'clock, Sheridan was ready to advance and 
deliver the attack himself. The signal sounded and the whole 



384 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

union line responded with a charge. The new battle had begun. 
Every division, every brigade, every regiment, confident of vic- 
tory, dashed on to the rebel lines, drove them from the stone 
walls and fences where they stood, and before night had them in 
a panic, routed and flying with a complete loss of trains and 
artillery. Not since Bull Run had such a rout been seen. 

Sheridan's army, so defeated in the morning, were by evening 
the victors of one of the most famous battles of the war. They 
had been surprised — but they had been heroes all the more, in 
plucking victory from such defeat. Gen. Early lost everything, 
and retreated with a single cannon. The annals of war seldom 
relate a completer victory than fell to the union arms. The 
valley was free. 

And what had the Iowa regiments done at Cedar Creek? 
They were a part of the hardest fighting division on that bloody 
field. It happened that they were in line when the alarm was 
given, before daylight that morning. They staid in line and at 
the fighting front all that battle day, and joined in the pursuit 
of the panic stricken rebel army in the evening. 

The Twenty-second, led by Col. Harvey Graham, lost 72 offi- 
cers and men that day — some 50 of whom were killed and 
wounded. Among the latter were Captains Lafayette F. Mul- 
lins, Alfred B. Cree, Charles Hartley and Geo. W. Clark, and 
Lieutenants Edward J. Dudley and Nicholas E. Messenger. 
Lieut. Robert W. Davis and Capt. W. W. Morsman were 
captured. 

The Twenty-fourth Iowa was led in the battle by Lt.-Col. J. Q. 
Wilds until a mortal wound took that brave officer and noble 
man from the field. He- was at once succeeded by Maj. Ed 
Wright, one of the bravest, best known and most esteemed offi- 
cers of Iowa. Wright himself was shortly wounded in arm and 
hip, and for a short time was hors de combat. Temporarily, 
Capt. L. Clark was in command, but Maj. Wright soon resumed 
his post and led the regiment through the vicissitudes of that 
fierce day. Both in the early morning and in the afternoon the 
Twenty-fourth Iowa fought bravely on the front line, gathering 
to itself new laurels dimmed only by the grief for many fallen 



IOWA IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 385 

comrades. Ninety-three of the regiment were dead, wounded or 
captured at the close of the contest. Among the wounded were 
the following officers: Lt.-Col. John Q. Wilds (mortally), Maj. 
Ed Wright, Captains Abraham R. Knott, Edwin H. Pound, 
Aaron M. Loomis, Lieut. Christian H. Kurtz. Capt. Wm. W. 
Smith and Lieut. Charles Davis were captured. 

The Twenty-eighth Iowa, led by Lt.-Col. Wilson until 
wounded, then by Maj. John Meyer, of Newton, one of the state's 
sincerest patriots and bravest men, was on the battle line before 
daylight. It was marched to a hill beyond the Winches- 
ter turnpike with orders to hold the crest, if possible. 
It was not possible. The regiments sent to support the 
Twenty-eighth on the right could not rally to the line 
under the heavy fire, so that Meyer's men were soon 
flanked by a heavy force and in utmost danger of capture. 
For one-third of a mile, the regiment double-quicked to escape 
destruction, passing through a terrible fire of musketry. In this 
retreat of but a few minutes duration, 6 men were killed and 
nearly 40 wounded. Half a mile to the rear the line rallied and 
for a moment checked the oncoming foe, but it was at the sacri- 
fice of Capt. Riemeuschneider slain and the gallant Lt.-Col. 
Wilson wounded. 

In the fight of the afternoon, the Twenty-fourth and the 
Twenty-eighth Iowa form the connecting link between the 
Sixth and the Nineteenth army corps. " The awful scene opens," 
says Maj. Meyer. " We notice nothing except our own com- 
mands, and the enemy in front. No officers ever did better, nor 
any soldiers ever fought more bravely than did those of my 
command in that hour which turned our defeat into a glo- 
rious victory. We press forward — the enemy yields — he flees. 
The victory is won. The rout transcends all others of the war. 
It seems so cruel, yet so satisfactory to the loyal heart, to see 
our boys drop the running foe, and when he gets beyond the 
reach of the rifles of the infantry, to see the cavalry plunge with 
their carbines, revolvers and sabres right into the disorganized 
mass of traitors, to kill, to terrify, and to scatter them in all 
directions. But the battle is over at last — the men reach camp. 
I. W. T.— 25 



386 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

It is cold and dark. The mind grows calm. Sadness and solem- 
nity come over all. The last struggles of our heroic dead — our 
brave comrades, are forever engraved on our memories. In after 
years we invite all interested in the Twenty-eighth Iowa, as they 
pass on the hill on the right of the pike, just before they cross 
Cedar Creek, to pause and read the names over the nine graves 
of the killed of the regiment on that day. They, with those 
mortally wounded, and the crippled and scarred for life, are some 
of the tokens of the unflinching fidelity of the regiment to an 
undivided nationality." So it was with all the Iowa regiments 
on that battle field. So it was on all of Iowa's battle fields — the 
slaughtered sons, the untold graves, were the signs of the state's 
devotion to the Union. 

The total loss of the Twenty-eighth was 93—9 killed, 73 
wounded and 11 missing. Among the officers killed or wounded 
were the brave Lt.-Col. Wilson who led until shot down severely 
wounded while trying to hold the enemy in check after the first 
recoil, and Capt. Riemenschneider killed at the same moment. 
Lieut. Charles P. N. Barker was also wounded. So many behaved 
bravely, special mention was made of none. 

Cedar Creek was a great victory but it had cost us dearly. 
Sheridan lost 5,764 men in the battle and very many valuable 
officers. The Nineteenth corps alone, where the Iowa men 
fought, lost nearly 2,500. There was a total of 569 killed on the 
union side. Early's losses will never be known exactly, but his 
army was nearly destroyed. The victory made Sheridan a major 
general in the regular army, and stamped him as one of the great 
captains of the age. All over the North, cannon were fired, bells 
rung and thanks given to God for the victory in the Shenandoah 
valley. Iowa was justly proud of the honors won for her by 
her three brave regiments — the only Iowa regiments that had 
ever fired a gun in the eastern army. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

WITH SHERMAN IN THE CAROLINAS. 
January-April, 1865. 

The same Iowa regiments that had marched with Sherman to 
the sea, also marched with him in the campaign through the 
Carolinas. It was the closing campaign of the Civil War; a 
campaign, not so much of hard battles, as of hard marching, 
great exposure and of extreme hardship. It was a march five 
hundred miles long, made in midwinter of an extraordinarily 
inclement year. It rained nearly all the time. The hundreds of 
creeks by the way were swollen into rivers — the rivers reached 
over their boundaries and often resembled lakes. The swamps, 
innumerable in number, and always difficult of passage, were 
deeper and broader than ever, bridgeless and almost impassable. 
The roads, never good, were quagmires for the whole five hun- 
dred miles. Scarcely a rod in the lowlands but had to be 
covered with corduroy bridges before being passable for trains or 
artillery. Add to it all, every river-crossing, every swamp and 
every vantage point of any kind was obstructed and defended by 
an alert and active enemy. Sherman was marching for the rear 
of Lee's army. Lee knew it, and every obstacle at the disposal 
of the South was to be thrown in the invader's way. Sherman's 
army, besides, was marching on to the sacred soil of South Caro- 
lina. This fact alone was enough to fire the last drop of blood 
in the southern Confederacy — a Confederacy born on the very 
soil, and within a hundred miles of the very spot where Sher- 
man's soldiers were about to bury it out of sight forever. 

Once more the cry, " Sherman's army must be destroyed," 
went up in all the South, and superhuman efforts were made to 
collect an invincible army in his front. Gen. Joseph E. John- 

(387) 



388 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

ston, the capable leader in the Atlanta campaign, was shortly 
restored to command. Wade Hampton, the true blue cavalryman 
of South Carolina, was hurried out of Virginia to rush home and 
save his state from the hands of the barbarian. Hardee, Beaure- 
gard and other generals famed in the South, were to collect and 
rally their commands and lead a forlorn hope. They had, in 
fact, reached " the last ditch." It was right there behind them, 
and they were about to wave a farewell to the world and fall 
into it. 

On the 1st day of February, 1865, in the rain, the mud and 
the storm, Sherman's army, with a cheer, started from the neigh- 
borhood of Savannah for South Carolina. Gen. Slocum, com- 
manding the left wing, crossed the Savannah river at Sister's 
Ferry, where the stream was three miles wide, owing to the floods 
of rain. Howard, with the right wing of the army, had gone to 
Pocotaligo, and was to start from there. The two parts of the 
army were to unite at Branchville — this with a view to march- 
ing first on the capital of South Carolina, and next on Goldsboro 
and the capital of North Carolina. Gen. Grant had sent other 
troops to garrison Savannah, while Sherman's men, spite of the 
tempestuous weather, waded into the swamps and jungles of the 
South with light hearts. They marched with the same spirit as 
their general, believing that the end was nigh. 

The Iowa regiments, and there were eleven of them, were 
mostly in the right wing with Howard, marching in the Fif- 
teenth corps under Logan, or the Seventeenth corps under Blair. 

"All the roads northward,' 1 says Sherman, "had for weeks been 
held by Wheeler's cavalry, that had, by details of negro laborers, 
felled trees, burned bridges and made obstructions to impede our 
march. But so well organized were our pioneer battalions, and 
so strong and intelligent our men, that obstructions seemed only 
to quicken their progress. Felled trees were removed and 
bridges rebuilt by the heads of columns, before the rear could 
close up." 

On reaching the Salkahatchie river the opposite shore was 
found to be strongly held by the enemy's infantry and artillery 
in intrench ments. This was especially the case at the crossings 



WITH SHERMAN IN THE CAEOLINAS. 389 

known as Rivers 1 and Beaufort's bridges. Sherman, however, 
not proposing to be checked, ordered both crossings to be car- 
ried by Blair's Seventeenth army corps and the Fifteenth corps 
of Gen. Logan. 

The work of taking Rivers' Bridge fell to the divisions of 
Mower and Giles A. Smith — the latter containing the Eleventh, 
Thirteenth, Fifteeth and Sixteenth regiments from Iowa under 
Belknap. There was but one way to reach the other side. Cold 
and bitter as the weather was, the soldiers, after receiving an 
extra twenty rounds of ammunition, entered the swamp. The 
water was from two to four feet deep and nearly two miles wide, 
running amidst a dense cypress forest with thick underbrush 
and myriads of tangled vines. The river was simply a two 
mile jungle with water waist deep, and an alert foe watching on 
the other side. The commanders of the divisions and the 
brigades dismounted from their horses and waded into the water 
at the heads of their columns. The crossing lasted an hour and 
a half and under a fire of artillery from the rebel guns at 
Rivers' Bridge. 

The Fifteenth Iowa, at the head of the wading column, had 
scarcely reached the shore when it was attacked by a force of 
cavalry and infantry posted at the edge of a field. Without 
waiting orders, the regiment formed ranks and wheeling 
toward the enemy, opened a fire that soon drove him from 
the field. Rivers' Bridge had been flanked by this movement 
through the swamp, and that night the whole line of the Salk- 
ahatchie was abandoned. In the movement crossing the swamp, 
1 officer and 17 men had been killed and 70 wounded. 

At about the same time the crossing at Beaufort's Bridge had 
been flanked and secured, and the Little Salkahatchie was waded 
through by part of the Fifteenth corps, in the same manner 
as the Seventeenth corps had crossed near Rivers' Bridge. 
Twelve hundred Rebels were in intrenchments defending the 
crossing at Beaufort's Bridge, but the Third division, with the 
Tenth Iowa at its head, deployed as skirmishers, waded through 
the stream and drove them to flight. The loss had been very 
slight. 



390 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Stone's Iowa brigade of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth 
Thirtieth and Thirty-first regiments performed a similar feat 
on the 15th of the month by wading through a cypress swamp 
and securing the fort and bridge at the crossing of the Little 
Congaree, not far from Orangeberg.* 

In this encounter, the Fourth Iowa, led by Lt.-Col. Nich- 
ols, plunged into a bayou waist deep in water and three 
hundred yards wide. At the same time a strong out- 
post of the enemy was charged and driven by a part 
of the Fourth and Ninth Iowa regiments under Maj. Anderson 
and Capt. Bowman. Nichols, Bowman and Anderson, all 
received mention by the brigade oommander for gallantry. 

By the 16th of February, Sherman's whole army was in front 
of Columbia. The pulses of the soldiers beat high to know that 
there at their feet, almost, lay the city where had been hatched 
all the treason of half a century. Columbia, of all the places 
in the South, had cried for " war." She was about to receive 
war, and in a very full measure. So far, Columbia had never 
seen a union soldier except as prisoner of war — and these, her 
citizens, her militia and her soldiers had treated with a bar- 
barity that would have shamed savages. The writer was one 
of those who had shared Columbia's hospitality to her prisoners 
captured in honorable battle. Many months, and with a thous- 
and comrades, he had endured in a prison pen, an open field at 
Columbia, all the horrors of an exposure to rain and cold; had 
suffered there, shelterless, without proper clothing, and almost 
without food — suffered the insolent guard, the shameful indig- 
nities, the dead line and the murderous intent that starved 
human beings to death while parading itself in the guise of chiv- 
alry. He had seen and experienced it all, and witnessed now 
something of the fear and trembling with which the citizens of 



*One of the funniest of these aquatic military exploits was performed 
a little later by a party of the Second Iowa at Lynch Creek. The stream 
was broad and deep. " Cross it in your own way," said the commander, 
"but cross it and keep your powder dry." Stripping stark naked, the men 
buckled their cartridge boxes about their necks, tied their clothes in 
bundles on the points of their bayonets and waded into the water. Reach- 
ing the opposite shore, they were attacked by some rebel cavalry. There 
was no time for putting on clothes, and, with a yell, naked as they were, 
they charged and routed the coming Rebels. 



WITH SHERMAN" IN" THE CAROLINAS. 391 

Columbia waited the coming of Sherman's army — not as poor, 
starved and naked prisoners of war whom they could insult and 
murder, but as armed and victorious soldiers, with steady tread, 
with serried lines of steel — the stern avengers of their comrades' 
wrongs. 

The hurrying to arms and the planting of cannon at vantage 
points behind her broad rivers, availed little against the veterans 
marching on the city. A broad river with burning bridges and 
armed intrenchments had ceased to be obstacles to the advance 
of that victorious, marching army. The Saluda river was 
quickly crossed, and at daylight of the 17th of February, Stone's 
Iowa brigade was over the broad river on pontoons, when, after 
charging the enemy and driving him from his position in a 
bayou, it secured the immediate surrender of the town. Stone's 
regiments, he was colonel of the Twenty-fifth Iowa, formed the 
Third brigade of the First division of the Fifteenth army corps, 
and to his soldiers belongs the proud distinction of receiving the 
formal surrender of Columbia. 

To the men of the Thirteenth Iowa of Belknap's brigade, how- 
ever, belongs the honor of hoisting the first union flag on the 
state capitol. Early that same morning, Lt.-Col. Kennedy of 
the Thirteenth Iowa, in the Seventeenth army corps, rigged out 
an old flat boat, and with a few men crossed over the river to Col- 
umbia from th? west. With his handful of men, he bravely 
marched through the streets of the town and planted the glori- 
ous flag on top of the old and the new capitol buildings. It was 
a brave act and won distinguished honor for men and com- 
mander. 

Stone's Iowa brigade soon entered the town and bivouacked 
in the streets, and then the greater part of Sherman's army, with 
flags flying and bands playing, marched through Columbia. 
Never so long as life lasts will the writer forget the prayer and 
the thankfulness with which he and a comrade who had just 
escaped with him from the prison pen, greeted and embraced the 
flag of Stone's brigade when they found it thrown over some 
muskets stacked in the street. 

That night Columbia burned to the ground. How it hap- 



392 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

pened and the scene that followed was related by the writer some 
years since in an eastern magazine. After running the guards 
of the prison, my comrade and I, finding a loyal negro, and such 
were not hard to find, were taken in charge at his hut, until Sher- 
man's army, which we believed to be coming, should approach 
and capture the city. 

Few words were spoken, but we were soon loyally, silently 
hidden away hi the little garret of the good man's house. There, 
among bean-vines and straw, we again waited and watched, 
thankfully feasting on the poor fare the old negro shared with 
us. "If Mr. Sherman only gits in, and I b'lieves he bound to, 
gemmen, you is safe, 1 ' the old man assured us. 

We believed Sherman would get into Columbia, and, although 
there were ominous signs in the air and hurrying of regiments 
to and fro all the night and the following day, we never lost 
hope. We could not tell whether the cannon we heard were 
Sherman's or Wade Hampton's, and once we thought the sounds 
were gradually getting farther and farther away. Our friend 
was sent into the city to observe. "Gemmen, they stands round 
on the sidewalks," he reported, "and they looks mighty sullen. 
I's bound to b'lieve they's gwine to run away." Soon we saw 
troop after troop hurrying past our hiding-place. Gen. Chest- 
nut had his headquarters in the yard right below us, and we saw 
him bid farewell to his servants and ride off. Five minute after- 
ward one of those same servants brought us a bowl of bread and 
milk from the general's kitchen. "Ha! ha! massa, we jest 
knowed you was thar all de time! and how we jest hoped you get 
clean gone!" 

The cavalry continued pouring by, and we could scarcely 
restrain ourselves from springing into the street. In a moment 
the black face of good old Edward Edwards peered up through 
the square hole into the garret. I shall never forget the picture 
as he stood there upon the ladder — an old gray army-coat on his 
shoulders, a broken cylinder hat on his head, and his eyes glow- 
ing. "Gemmen," he shouted, "gemmen, thank the Lord Almighty ! 
The stars and stripes am wavin' above the capitol of South Car- 
olina!" At one bound we were down the ladder and stood with 



WITH SHERMAN IN THE CAKOLINAS. 393 

hands clasped in those of the old slave, and thanked God that 
not only we, but this man also, were from this moment free. 

But our joy and our haste nearly cost us our new liberty, for, 
as we left the cabin, we were seen by the rear-guard of the 
retreating cavalry. They were, however, too busy just then to 
look after us. No federal troops had yet reached our quarter of 
the town; but, at the risk of being picked up by stragglers of 
the rebel army, we marched down toward the market-house and 
the square. The whole street was lined with rows of cotton- 
bales, cut open and on fire. There was no question as to why 
they were there, or tvJw had put them there. It was in order 
that they should be destroyed before falling into Sherman's 
hands. Soon our eyes rested on the blue uniforms of the sol- 
diers of the North. They had just marched in and stacked arms, 
and there, hanging over the bayonets, was the dear old flag of 
the Union. We kissed and embraced it. I don't know what 
the veteran soldiers must have thought on seeing strong men 
shed tears at the sight of a flag. To us, the ground seemed 
almost too good to walk upon, the open air too dear to be 
breathed carelessly. 

What a sight it was for us to see the grand old Fifteenth 
army corps marching into the city with steady tramp, the bands 
playing, and brown old Johnny Logan riding at their head! — 
Johnny Logan, with whom we had stormed trenches and forts 
in the days long gone. I fear he did not hear our feeble cheers 
among the multitude of loud hurrahs. And then came Sher- 
man — glorious, victorious Billy Sherman. His keen eye soon 
recognized the prisoners struggling through the crowd to thank 
him for their delivery, and a press of the hero's hand seemed to 
recompense us for the weary days since, on the night before our 
capture, he had encouraged the boys at the storming of Mission- 
ary Ridge. 

We two lived a month in that short 17th day of February, 
1865. I think we shook hands with a thousand soldiers, with 
many even whom we had never seen before. It seemed to us 
that everybody must be as glad to see us as we were to see them; 
and I don't doubt but we were at least partly right. 



394 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

The wind had been blowing a hurricane since noon, and flakes 
from the burning cotton-bales we had seen in the streets had set 
numbers of the houses on fire. Probably enough, too, some of 
the escaped prisoners who had joined Sherman down about 
Branchville on the march, did their part in aiding the conflagra- 
tion. Certain it was that the city was on fire at dark. 

The broad, beautiful streets were lighted as if it were day. 
The heat in almost every direction was overpowering. The 
thousands of shade trees that adorned the city were twisting and 
twining like serpents. All around, buildings were falling, and 
here and there loud explosions, followed by a sudden darting 
up of fresh flames, made the scene as splendid and terrible as a 
battle. We met gray-haired men and women, followed by little 
children, hurrying toward the fields, leaving everything they 
had in the world burning up behind them. Had Jefferson Davis, 
Robert Toombs and Wade Hampton heard the imprecations of 
their own distressed people on them that night, they would have 
wished themselves under the burning houses. 

One white-haired . old man was wandering along the street 
perfectly insane. Whole groups of men, women and children 
stood, like frightened deer, in spots farthest from the fire or 
huddled in the shadow of some unburned church. Many believed 
that the elements had combined with the invading army for 
their utter destruction. They thought of their Confederacy 
lost, their proud state ruined, their beautiful city, their own 
homes, destroyed, and their brothers and sons defeated and fly- 
ing. Certainly it did not seem as if daylight could bring to 
Columbia much worth living for. In fact, the people, in utter 
despair, were abandoning everything. 

I did not see a citizen make an effort to save property or to 
extinguish the flames. Had it not been for the night-long exer- 
tions of Gen. Sherman and many of his troops, not one house 
in Columbia would have been left as a relic of its existence. 

I think neither of us had slept for four days and nights; so 
we were little inclined to resist. Nature was tired out, and, in 
spite of the excitement of our release and the dreadful surround- 
ings, we slept till 10 o'clock in the forenoon. 



WITH SHERMAN IN" THE CAROLINES. 395 

When I went out of doors, there were the smoking ruins of 
Columbia. Hundreds of people, homeless and without food, sat 
in front of the charred ruins of their old homes. The sight 
would have moved a barbarian to pity. Five hundred houses, 
five churches and a convent were lying in ashes. I could not 
help thinking of what their own Vice-President had told Georgia 
and South Carolina would happen should they attempt to destroy 
the government. All the wretchedness he had pictured was 
upon them. Their fields were wasted, their homes desolate, and 
their sons were dead. As the army moved off to the North, it 
was followed by great trains of wagons, filled with men, women 
and children. They were the people of Columbia, whom Sher- 
man's army was rescuing from the results of their own folly. 

Gen. Sherman naturally and rightfully disclaimed any agency 
in the burning of Columbia, much as his soldiers and the out- 
raged prisoners of war would have been justified in its destruc- 
tion. "Without hesitation," he wrote, "I charge Gen. Wade 
Hampton with having burned his own city of Columbia — not 
with malicious intent nor as the silly manifestation of a silly 
Roman stoicism, but from folly and want of sense in filling it 
with lint, tinder and cotton." 

The arsenal, depots, foundries, etc., of Columbia once in ashes, 
Sherman's columns turned their heads toward Cheraw on the 
Peedee river, threatening as they marched, Charlotte to the left, 
and leaving Charleston cut off to their rear. Nobody in all 
South Carolina knew any more where Sherman's columns were 
going. It was not known in the North even, for all communi- 
cation was gone. It was only known that probably Sherman 
was " smashing things " in the interior of South Carolina, as 
he had smashed them in the interior of Georgia. The rebel army 
at his front, in which there were more generals almost than 
soldiers, believed him capable of going anywhere. 

Cheraw, with its fine defensive position and its great park of 
heavy artillery, fell almost without a struggle, and the victorious 
army pushed on through the mud and rain, over the bridgeless 
streams and the dark bayous, corduroying the road beds as they 
went. Hardee, seeing himself cut off in Charleston and fearing 



396 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the crisis of a surrender, had in the meantime blown up and 
burned up his beautiful city which he had been sent to protect, 
and taken his flight to join Beauregard in front of Sherman. 

Fayetteville on the Cape Fear river did as Cheraw did — sur- 
rendered at discretion. Its capture, however, had an air of the 
serio-comic. Fayetteville, the home of chivalry, was captured 
by Sherman's " bummers. 1 ' Its defenders fought a little, of 
course, but daring foragers of Sherman's columns, riding 
through the country in advance of the army, organized into a 
strong body and took the town, presenting it to Sherman on his 
arrival, in the name of the brave bummers of the best army in 
Christendom. Ignominious fate for a proud chivalry! Fayette- 
ville was an important town, too, with a splendid arsenal and 
great stores of arms and ammunition and machinery.* The 
main column had hardly entered the town when the soldiers 
heard the whistle of a little steamer in the river. A couple of 
bold men had run up the Cape Fear river from Wilmington in 
a tug. It was the first news from the North since the army had 
cut loose from its base at Savannah. 

That night an officer of Sherman's staff f ran down the river 
in the tug, and by ocean steamer carried the news of Sherman's 
success in the Carolinas to Grant at City Point, Virginia. In- 
stantly the bonfires blazed again in the North, and the bells 
rang for the victories of Sherman's tramping soldiers. By the 
same messenger, the commanders at Wilmington and at New- 
bern received orders to move forces and supplies in the direction 
of Goldsboro, where Sherman hoped to be in less than a fort- 
night. By the most stubborn and heroic fighting, Wilmington 
and all its forts had been taken by the union forces a fortnight 
before, and this was among the good news brought to Sherman 
in the tug boat up the Cape Fear river. 

On the 15th of March, Sherman's columns entered on the 
last stage of the campaign; but he was soon aware that by this 

*The splendid arsenal at Fayetteville contained the machinery, arms, 
etc., stolen from Harper's Ferry at an earlier date. It belonged of course 
to the United States government. Sherman destroyed it all, as well as 
every foundry, machine shop, etc., in the town. It was a loss of millions. 

fThe writer. 



WITH SHERMAN IN THE CAROLINAS. 397 

time the enemy was succeeding in concentrating large forces at 
his front. By quick marches on inner lines, a part of Hood's 
army from Tennessee had reached North Carolina, and all the 
forces from Charleston, and the Virginians from Wilmington 
under Hoke, had joined those that had been falling back before 
Sherman for a month. A column of 40,000 men, under skillful 
leaders, was now thrown across Sherman's path. The hardships 
of the campaign, the constant fatigue duty in building roads, 
the incessant rains and the long marches, had told hard on the 
army, and the soldiers needed rest and better clothing. Some of 
the men had worn the shoes from their feet by constant use 
over the wretched roads.* 

Sherman, while threatening to the left, marched his main 
army northeast toward Aveysboro. On the 16th of March the 
left of Slocum's wing, and Gen. Kilpatrick's splendid cavalry 
that had constantly been acting as a curtain of protection to 
the army, were violently attacked. A severe engagement fol- 
lowed, the Rebels fighting behind intrenchments; but by night- 
fall they were beaten and left the field in the darkness. The 
engagement, however, cost Sherman some 600 killed and 
wounded. No Iowa troops were engaged. 

Two days afterward, the rebel leaders discovering Sherman's 
wings to be several miles apart, resolved to attack Slocum again, 
and, if possible, to destroy him before Howard could come to 
his help with the right wing of the army. The assault made 
in force, was at first successful, and it brought on the almost 
last important battle of the war. It was on the road leading 
into the town of Bentonsville. Gen. Sherman was a few miles 
off, riding through the woods toward Howard's army on the 
right, when Lieut. Foraker, a young officer on Slocum's staff, 
and the present governor of Ohio, galloped up to tell him of 
the battle on the left. 

Slocum's army had halted and thrown up slight barricades, 
and from behind these had repulsed six distinct and heavy 
assaults of the enemy. It was a determined effort to crush him. 

*The Serenth Iowa had 75 men entirely barefooted before the close of the 
campaign. 



398 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Slocum's troops bravely held their ground till night fell. That 
night two of his own divisions came up, and morning brought 
with it Howard's troops of the right wing of the army. Among 
them were the regiments from Iowa. 

That night Johnston, too, intrenched, and with his army 
occupying the lines of a large triangle, the apex at the front, 
waited the attack. By four in the afternoon of the 20th of 
March, Sherman's whole army confronted the rebel position. 
Nevertheless, Sherman was in no hurry for a battle and brought 
none on, but spent the evening in pressing up with his skir- 
mishers and shelling the enemy's position. 

On the day following, one of Sherman's divisions, under Gen. 
Mower, on the right, pushed so far around the enemy's flank 
as to almost cut off his only line of retreat. Fearing a concen- 
trated assault on this division, Sherman ordered a general attack 
by his skirmishers along the whole line. It brought on an en- 
gagement in which the union line was successful, and that night, 
in the darkness, the last of the great rebel armies slipped away. 
There had, however, been some good fighting during the day by 
different divisions, and in it all the Iowa troops bore an honor- 
able part. 

The Iowa brigade under Belknap not only skirmished with 
the line in its front; it dashed forward, drove the enemy from his 
first intrenchment and charged a heavy line of battle, retiring 
only when overpowered. In that short charge, 25 of the brigade 
were killed or wounded. Lieut. Goodrell, who led the skirmish- 
ers in the fight, received the thanks of the brigade commander 
for skill on the battle field, and Lieutenants Mitchell, Rynearson 
and Williams, as well as Capt. Bye of the Fifteenth Iowa, all 
received the personal thanks of Gen. Smith for gallantry. 

While marching over from its camp near Cox's bridge to con- 
nect with the Fourteenth corps, the Iowa regiments under Stone 
became, with some other troops, severely engaged. Three miles 
out from Bentonsville the enemy became stubborn and threat- 
ened fight, holding the road along which the union line was 
marching. Stone received orders from Logan, to whose corps he 
belonged, to advance and clear the road. The Twenty-fifth Iowa, 



WITH SHERMAN" IN THE CAROLINES. 399 

Lt.-Col. Palmer, and Sixth Missouri, supported by the Thirtieth 
Iowa, Lt.-Col. Roberts, and Thirty-first Iowa, Lt.-Col. Jenkins, 
charged into the woods and drove the enemy back to their works 
behind a swamp. The movement was a success, and communi- 
cation with the Fourteenth corps was established. 

But the Twenty-fifth Iowa had lost severely. Among its 
wounded was Capt. Allen, the acting major, who lost a leg. 
Both he and Lt.-Col. Palmer received the thanks of the brig ade 
commander for gallantry. 

On the next day, when Sherman ordered the general attack by 
all the union skirmishers, Stone's men, especially the Fourth, 
Ninth and Thirtieth Iowa, did some gallant fighting. What 
was intended by Sherman as a demonstration only, turned, at 
points, into a battle. Different charges made on Stone's line of 
intrenchments which he had taken from the enemy, were sig- 
nally repulsed. 

That night, Stone's advanced line was relieved by the Thirty- 
first Iowa under Lt.-Col. Jenkins, and in the rain and darkness 
other more advanced intrenchments were thrown up so close to 
the enemy that their voices could be heard. Of the officers who 
had led in the severe skirmish that day, Inman of the Ninth 
Iowa, Shields of the Fourth, Sharp of the Ninth, Reffley of the 
Thirtieth and Bowman of the brigade staff, received mention. 
Capt. Teale of the Fourth Iowa, who had held the most exposed 
and dangerous part of the line, was severely wounded, and was 
specially commended for gallantry. 

As already related, the enemy withdrew that night in the 
darkness. Early in the morning, while it was still dark, 
some of Stone's vigilant patrols discovered that the enemy was 
gone. Stone notified the division commander, and with the 
Thirty -first Iowa gave instant pursuit. At sunrise, his skirmishers 
fired a few shots at the retreating rear guard of the rebel army. 
Johnston was gone, and a squad of Iowa men had fired the last 
shot in the last battle of the campaign. 

In a short time, April 26th, the whole rebel army in Sher- 
man's front surrendered to the victorious forces that had fol- 
lowed them during the war for thousands of miles and defeated 



400 IOWA IN WAK TIMES. 

them in scores of bloody battles. It had been a brave foe, and 
worthy of a better cause. Sherman, recognizing all this, and 
knowing the war to be practically over, gave his prostrate f oemen 
generous terms — terms disapproved in high quarters then, but 
such as the judgment of time has pronounced soldierly and emi- 
nently wise. 

The signatures to the treaty of surrender were not written 
when Sherman's army was shocked by the awful news of the 
assassination of the great President. Language fails to picture the 
feelings of Sherman's soldiers. It is a monument to their honor, 
discipline and pure patriotism, that vengeance was not instantly 
wreaked on the rebel army about to fall into their hands. With 
bowed heads, though victorious, they marched on to Richmond 
and to Washington, to the great Review. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 
April, 1865. 

The last place of importance in the South to surrender its 
arms was the city of Mobile. It held out even longer than 
Richmond. Mobile was one of the best fortified cities in the 
South. It was also one of the rebel army's best feeders, being a 
great and safe port for blockade runners. Mobile was about the 
last city to leave the Union in 1861; but once out, it determined 
to be in no hurry to get in again. The city, situated on the 
beautiful bay of Mobile and at the mouth of the Mobile river, 
was by nature well defended. The Richmond fortifications were 
trifling compared with the fortifications built to protect Mobile. 
Gen. Johnston pronounced it the strongest place in the Confed- 
eracy, not excepting "Vicksburg. Not less than 72 forts sur- 
rounded the city, with miles and miles of breastworks between. 
This included the two enormous walled forts of Morgan and Gaines 
at the entrance of Mobile bay, and the series of fortifications 
east and north of the city, known as " Spanish Fort " and " Fort 
Blakely." 

It was with these two latter works, immense in size, and 
deemed about impregnable, that the Iowa soldiers had to do in 
the spring of 1865. The whole world knows of the famous 
passage of the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile bay, in the 
autumn of 1864. It was one of the famous naval victories of 
history, when Admiral Farragut, himself tied to the mast-head 
of the Hartford, ran past the fearful batteries of Forts Gaines 
and Morgan, destroyed the rebel fleet in the bay, and eventually 
received the surrender of the two frowning citadels. The story 
of how one of his gallant ships went down with almost every 

(401) 
I. W. T.— 26 



402 IOWA IN WAK TIMES. 

soul on board; the desperate conflict with the terrible rebel ram, 
and the awful bombardment his fleet received from Morgan's 
walls of fire and from Gaines's dreadful cannon, is a story that 
will be remembered by Americans with pride so long as a history 
.or a tradition of our land remains. 

That was in August of 1864. The two great guards to Mobile 
bay had fallen, the gallant fleet rode safely in the harbor, but the 
city of Mobile and its splendid land defenses did not yield. 

On the failure of the expedition of Banks, or the Red river 
campaign, that general was succeeded in command of his depart- 
ment by Gen. E. R. S. Canby. In May of 1864, Canby received 
instructions to attack Mobile, but owing to the increased activity 
of the rebel army in the Southwest, and the absolute necessity for 
Canby's forces there, the movement on Mobile was postponed 
almost a year. In all these long months the authorities at 
Mobile did little but fortify their city against what they well 
knew would some day be a formidable attack. The place con- 
tained 30,000 people, and its strong redoubts and its long lines 
of breastworks were garrisoned now by many of the courageous 
veterans of Hood's army— men who had become hardened, 
brave soldiers in such campaigns as Chattanooga and Atlanta. 

But the rebel Confederacy was reeling to its end, and at last 
Mobile's fatal hour was coming, too. The middle of March saw 
an army concentrated under Gen. Canby, waiting on Dauphin 
Island, at the mouth of Mobile bay, for the orders to march on 
the works of the city. Another strong column under Maj. 
Gen. F. Steele, who had been the first colonel of the Eighth 
Iowa infantry, had concentrated at Fort Barrancas, at Pensacola, 
in Florida, for the purpose of co-operating against Mobile. 
This column under Gen. Steele was first of all to make a feint 
north, toward Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, and then, 
at the proper moment, wheel eastward and march on Mobile. 

Canby's army at Dauphin Island was divided into two army 
corps — the Thirteenth, commanded by Gen. Granger, and the 
Sixteenth army corps, commanded by Gen. A. J. Smith. The 
plan of operations adopted was for this army to move up and 
around the east side of Mobile Bay and attack the formidable 



THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 403 

works of Spanish Fort, while a small force should make a feint 
on the west side of the bay. 

Steele's column, leaving Pensacola three days later, was, after 
feinting north as far as the town of Pollard, to turn sharp to its 
left and march direct on Fort Blakely, some six miles above 
Spanish Fort. This would throw Steele's army to the right- 
flank of Canby's forces, when once in front of Spanish Fort. 
The line of march from the mouth of Mobile bay to Spanish Fort 
was about 70 miles in length. The east shore, along which half of 
Canby's troops marched, was that spring time a constant series of 
swamps and tangled woods. The roads were bottomless in mud 
and water, and not infrequently the soldiers had to pull not only 
the mired wagons out of the mud, but the horses and mules 
themselves. It was a hard and disagreeable march. Some days 
the army advanced only five miles — one day, only four miles. 
The Sixteenth corps had gone half way up the bay by transports 
and landed at Fish river, where it joined the other corps that had 
been struggling through the mud and swamps. 

On the 25th of March, the united army advanced, and in 
three days, after much maneuvering and some little fighting, it 
stretched in a three-mile line along the semi-circle of the works 
of Spanish Fort. The fort and its line of outworks was on the 
bay shore, seven miles due east of Mobile. Gen. Maury com- 
manded inside the fort, and, as it proved, led a force of brave 
and reckless men. 

Gen. Smith's Sixteenth corps took its position on the right of 
the investing line, and the Thirteenth corps continued the line 
around to the extreme left. Carr's division held Smith's right, 
and Bertram's brigade the left of Gen. Granger. It so happened 
that the extreme right and the extreme left regiments in the 
investing army were composed of Iowa soldiers. Geddes's brig- 
ade at the right of Carr's division contained the Eighth Iowa, 
the One-hundred-and-eighth and the One-hundred-and-twenty- 
fourth Illinois regiments, the Iowa command being led by 
Lt.-Col. Bell. Bertram's brigade, away around at the extreme 
left, with Granger, included among other troops the Nineteenth 
and the Twenty-third regiments from Iowa. 



404 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Immediately at their front stood the high, bare bluff known 
as Fort McDermett, armed with ten heavy cannon. Following 
the semi-circle of the rebel line from Ft. McDermett on the bay 
at the left around to the position of Geddes's men at the right 
and also near the bay, one saw only frowning breastworks, well 
armed, and batteries on every spur of ground, rifle pits in front 
of these, and, in front of all, the trees cut down and slashed up 
in a way to make a dangerous abatis to cross under a heavy fire. 
This line of works was over two miles long. It did not seem 
possible to take it except by the slow methods of a siege. 

By noon of the 27th of March, the investment was nearly 
complete. There was heavy skirmishing and much artillery 
firing as the federal lines drew up to position in front of the 
rebel works. There were some losses, too, among Iowa troops, 
notably in the Eighth and the Nineteenth regiments, and 
some in the Twelfth and Thirty-fifth. The Eighth, under 
Lt.-Col. Bell, pushing its way up on the extreme right and in 
advance of its brigade, lost 13, half of whom, nearly, were non- 
commissioned officers. The extreme advance on the left of the 
army that day was led by Lt.-Col. Bruce and his Nineteenth 
Iowa. In approaching the works, they crossed an open field 
under a heavy artillery fire, and on reaching the fallen trees 
beyond the field, the enemy's musketry met them, killing and 
wounding some 16 of the regiment. The Thirty-fifth Iowa and 
the Twelfth, in Marshall's brigade, of McArthur's division, 
advanced at the center, opposite to, and almost right under the 
rebel redoubt known as the kt Red Fort." The Twelfth was led 
by Maj. Knee, and lost 5 men; the Thirty-fifth, under Lt.-Col. 
Keeler, lost less. The Second Iowa battery, Capt. J. R. Reed, 
with his splendid twelve-pounders, joined in the shelling of Red 
Fort. The other Iowa regiments, whether in the reserve or on 
the front lines, lost few men that day in completing the invest- 
ment of the rebel works. When darkness came on that 27th 
of March, the siege had begun. 

Then commenced the work of the pick and the spade along 
the whole line of the union army, and all that night the busy 
work of intrenching in front of the rebel breastworks and forts 



THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 405 

went on. "The enemy has established himself in heavy force 
from our extreme left to the right," telegraphed the rebel com- 
mander to his superior officer over in Mobile. 

Iowa was strongly represented in the forces moving on Mobile. 
Eleven Iowa regiments and a battery, the Eighth, Twelfth, 
Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-third, Twenty- 
ninth, Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth and Thirty- 
eighth infantry, and the Second battery. This was a little 
army in itself, and as we shall see later, a part of it was to figure 
conspicuously in the reduction of the city. 

The siege of Spanish Fort lasted just thirteen days and ended 
in an assault. During these thirteen days, the skirmishing and 
the artillery firing were almost constant. Rod by rod and foot 
by foot the union lines approached the rebel works. The whole 
army became burrowers in the ground. Every regiment had its 
rifle pits, its holes in the ground, its parallels, its saps, its galler- 
ies, its trenches, its gabions and its bomb proofs. Every single 
soldier became a miner and an army engineer. Each day of 
the siege saw some little fighting at the advance or some inci- 
dent worthy of record. 

At daylight of the second day of the siege, a detachment, 
including some men of the Thirty-third Iowa, of Benton's 
division, was sent to the front to relieve some skirmishers. On 
their way out they passed through a ravine full of felled timber 
and commanded by the cannon of Fort McDermett. The rebel 
sharpshooters also had full range on this dangerous ravine. 
Spite of the dangers, the men pushed on, and drove some of the 
Rebels from their advanced rifle pits. Of the little detail of the 
Thirty-third Iowa, 8 were wounded seriously — one of them mor- 
tally. Captains W. S. Parmlee and Gr. R. Ledyard were among 
the wounded. It was a wonder all were not killed. 

On the evening of that same day some other Iowa men at the 
front had an experience worthy of relating. Capt. Noble, with 
100 men of the Twenty-first Iowa, Slack's brigade, was sent to 
the extreme front, to build works for a battery. He also had 
with him 300 unarmed men from other regiments, to assist in 
the work. Approaching cautiously to the spot, the labor was 



406 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

commenced, part of the men sticking their bayonets and mus- 
kets the meanwhile in the ground. Toward midnight, and in the 
midst of a dark rain storm, Noble's handful of pickets in his 
advance were attacked. The Rebels had heard the noise of the 
tools, and a party of them sallied out, to drive off or capture the 
bold Yankees. It was a surprise to Noble, and a hand to hand 
conflict ensued there in the darkness. Some of the unarmed 
men ran back to camp and gave the alarm and soon help came; 
but in the meantime Noble and his men had kept the Rebels out 
of his earthwork. He lost 1 man killed and 5 wounded. The 
Rebels had 7 killed and 11 wounded. The attack resulted in 
heavy firing all along the skirmish line of the army. 

Capt. L. K. Myers of the Twenty-ninth Iowa also met with 
an incident and a mishap on the following night, while out on 
the skirmish line. He was acting as brigade officer of the day, 
and, by mistake, in the darkness walked inside the rebel lines. 
By much presence of mind, he managed to escape, together with 
a small squad of unarmed men who were with him, but not 
until he had himself been badly wounded. 

Slowly the union approaches extended, each day seeing some 
advance and some incident. Once the Nineteenth Iowa, digging 
its advance trenches forward, came into a rifle pit of the enemy, 
and found abandoned there the dead bodies of 3 Rebels whom our 
sharpshooters had killed. Some of the enemy inside the forts 
were the same men whom our Iowa boys had fought at Nash- 
ville and elsewhere in the West. This was notably so of Holtz- 
claw's brigade, some of whom had even helped to capture the 
Eighth Iowa at Shiloh. 

By Sunday morning April 2d, cannon were also heard up in 
the direction of Fort Blakely. Steele's column had marched 
from Pensacola and was now closing in on Blakely. At Spanish 
Port, however, the soldiers still had enough to entertain them 
with the batteries 1 constant fire and the rattling musketry iu 
their front. Their enemy did not purpose leaving without a 
struggle. He was active, vigilant and brave, even desperate at 
times. It was unsafe for a man to show his head above the 
breastworks for a single moment. Many men were shot through 



THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 407 

pure carelessness or recklessness in exposing themselves on the 
line, and many were shot in holding the skirmish lines at the 
extreme front. The Thirty-third Iowa lost several in this duty. 

In every direction and at every available vantage point, the 
union men had brought up batteries till every spur and every 
hight near Spanish Fort bristled with Yankee cannon. Ninety- 
six guns and many mortars and howitzers were in position 
to pour a storm of iron into the rebel works. By April 8th, Gen. 
Canby, seeing all in readiness, our lines closed up, and every bat- 
tery manned, resolved to assault the works at daylight of the 
9th. Preparatory to this, a ferocious bombardment of the rebel 
works by all the batteries of the union line commenced at five 
on the afternoon of the 8th. It was a splendid spectacle — the 
tremendous storm of shot and shell belching from a hundred 
cannon at the same instant, and replied to from half as many 
more in the forts. 

Gen. Carr on the extreme right concluded to take some advan- 
tage of the excitement of the evening's bombardment to advance 
his line a little and take posession of a pine covered crest at his 
front. The Eighth Iowa infantry, led by Lt.-Col. William B. 
Bell, was selected for the work. Col. Geddes, commanding the 
brigade, directed Col. Bell to let two of his companies move out- 
side of the breastworks well to his right, advance to the little 
crest, drive in the rebel sharpshooters, and intrench themselves 
there for the night. This was the full extent of the movement 
as planned by Carr and Geddes. 

" How long will it take you to have the men ready to assault?" 
asked Geddes. "Just fifteen minutes, 1 ' replied Col. Bell. At 
the appointed moment his two companies, led by himself, moved 
from behind the right gabion out into full view of the rebel 
sharpshooters, and into the slashed trees and the mud and the 
swamps that for a hundred yards lay between them and the rebel 
works. Capt. Henry Muhs of Company A, and Lieut. Henry 
Vineyard of Company G, rapidly deployed their men and ad- 
vanced. Muhs led the skirmish line. Col. Bell accompanied 
the advance until he felt sure the men could gain the crest, and 
then returned to the rest of the regiment behind the bastion. 



408 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

From the enemy's rifle pits and from behind stumps and logs 
and trees came the unerring musketry into the faces of the little 
band struggling to climb through the felled trees and abatis. 
The men of Carr's division back in the trenches cheered, in order 
to give the impression that the whole division was about to 
assault. The cheering only put the Rebels the more on the alert 
and the advancing line was being rapidly shot down. Col. Bell, 
fearing the result of the overpowering numbers at the front, at 
once sent another company, H, under Lieut. Bell, to the aid of 
the men so rapidly falling. At the same moment he hurried 
Lieut. Clark rearward, to secure permission of Col. Geddes to 
advance with the whole regiment. 

With anxiety he saw the critical position in which these three 
companies were now placed, if left without support. To be 
driven back would mean annihilation of the line. Orders or no 
orders, it was time to act, and without waiting a reply from 
Geddes, Col. Bell shouted to his regiment to spring over the 
breastwork and follow him to the front. Instantly the men, 
eager to avenge their comrades, crossed over the gabion, and 
with Bell in the center, advanced into the storm of bullets that 
was already decimating his advanced companies. Once to the 
crest, and it taken, the fire became too hot to endure. Retreat 
could not be thought of, nor was it possible. With the cry of 
"forward," the whole line dashed for the main rebel works and 
with bayonet and bullet took the rifle pits and the intrench- 
ments. The charge had been so sudden, the line scarcely had 
time to form, till it was bitterly engaged with the Texas men 
inside the fort. Once inside the works, there could be no halting, 
and by a right flank movement, the gallant colonel led his regi- 
ment down the inside of its rebel works, taking at the point of the 
bayonet the intrench ments for a distance of five hundred yards. 

Heroically and stubbornly, even stoically, the Rebels defended 
their rifle pits. Many, with the bayonet at their breasts, refused 
to surrender and were killed. Col. Bell and the Eighth Iowa 
had taken Spanish Fort. It was one of the most heroic actions 
of all the war, and reflected just honor, and new lustre, on the 
name of Iowa soldiers. 



THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 409 

The regiment now formed on the outside of the rebel intrench- 
ments, using them as a defense against an attack soon made by 
some rallied Texans, in a vain effort to drive Bell and his regi- 
ment from the fort. The attack was quickly repulsed and the 
Eighth held its ground. After a whole hour's fighting, and 
after darkness had set in, other troops of the brigade were sent 
to its aid. But the battle was over. Bell's men were the only 
men who did any fighting of importance inside of Spanish Fort. 
They had captured 3 battle flags, 5 cannon, and nearly 500 
prisoners. 

Shortly, our troops advanced at all points of the line. By 
midnight, all the long line of fortifications, with their immense 
array of artillery and munitions of war, were in the union 
hands. 

Gren. Canby was not slow to recognize the gallantry of the 
Eighth Iowa. As a special honor, it was directed to camp in the 
fortress the following day, and gather trophies of the victory, 
while the other troops marched toward Blakely. Lt.-Col. Bell 
was at once brevetted full colonel of volunteers. Sergt. Edgar 
A. Brass who had captured a flag out of a Rebel's hand as he 
entered the fort, received a medal from congress, and the legis- 
lature of Iowa passed resolutions of thanks to the men and officers 
of the brave regiment. Fortunately, the losses in the assault had 
not been noticeably severe. Its very rapidity and the nearness of 
the works saved many lives. Yet quick as the work was, 25 of 
the brave little command were killed or wounded. Capt. F. P. 
Kettenring and Lieut. Spencer Smith were among the wounded. 
The heroic Lieut. Henry Vineyard, though lying with a mortal 
wound, in front of the rebel works, refused help and urged his 
men to the charge. That was the kind of fighting that made 
Iowa's name famous in the annals of the Civil War. 

Far around to the union left and the center that night, other 
Iowa regiments, like the Nineteenth and the Twenty-third, were 
at the front, pressing the enemy and preparing for assault. At 
Krez's brigade front, in Benton's division, the Thirty-third Iowa 
under Maj. Boydston was the first to enter the rebel breast- 
works. The rebel commander, on seeing the success of the 



410 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Eighth Iowa in beating back his Texas regiments on his right, 
and in taking their intrench ments away from them, resolved on 
retreat and evacuation at once. When the sun rose on the 
morning of the 9th of April, it greeted the Stars and Stripes 
floating on the heights of Spanish Fort. 

CAPTURE OF FORT BLAKELY. 

The troops that had taken Spanish Fort were now free to 
march to the aid of Gen. Steele's column besieging Blakely, a 
village ten miles northeast of Mobile, on the east side of the 
Appalachee river, and less than six miles distant from Spanish 
Fort. 

Gen. Steele's column had made a hard march from Pensacola 
to Blakely, coming away round by the town of Pollard for the 
purpose of making a feint toward Montgomery. The roads 
were horrible much of the way, and miles and miles were cordu- 
royed before the trains and the artillery could pass over them. 
Canby's main column of troops, marching through the wilder- 
ness and the mud around Mobile Bay to Spanish Fort, scarcely 
had worse times with impassable roadways than did Steele's men 
on their way from Pensacola to Blakely.* Steele had 13,000 
soldiers with him, 5,000 of whom were the colored troops form- 
ing the brave and hard-lighting division of Gen. Hawkins. The 
white troops were the Second division of the Thirteenth army 
corps and a body of cavalry. Among the infantry were two 
Iowa regiments, the Twentieth and the Thirty-fourth, in Moore's 
brigade. Capt. John F. Lacey of Iowa, formerly of Gen. Rice's 
staff, was now Steele's competent assistant adjutant-general. He 
was one of the youngest officers in the army, and won his 
responsible position by courage and competency. 

Steele's column struggled along on its way through woods and 
mud and mire without incident of note, until it ran onto a rebel 
force at Pringle's creek. Here quite a brilliant little engagement 

*Bottomless roads were not the worst thing Steele's men had to contend 
with. There was not enough to eat. Part of the time on that march the 
troops were on one-third rations. Once they were reduced to one cracker a 
day. "Our supper to-night," writes one of the privates, "and we are cold, 
tired, muddy and hungry, consists of sassafras tea and a little parched corn, 
which we picked up from the ground where onr cavalry fed." 



THE BATTLES FOB MOBILE. 411 

took place, resulting in the capture or rout of the rebel force. 
Its commander, Gen. Clanton, was himself taken prisoner, 
together with 130 of his officers and men. 

By the 2d of April the hard march was over, and Steele's col- 
umn had stretched itself in a semi-circle around the fortifications 
of Blakely. In approaching the works, the colored troops on 
the right had a severe combat with the Rebels a mile or more 
outside the enemy's rifle pits. Some 40 men of the colored 
division were killed or wounded, but the Rebels were driven 
back to their outside works, and the division went into line for 
the investment of the forts. Gen. C. C. Andrews, leading the 
Second division, took position to the left of the colored division; 
Moore's brigade, including the Twentieth and the Twenty- 
fourth Iowa, in advance, in line of battle, and skirmishing under 
a fire of artillery. Later in the day the positions were changed 
a little, Moore's brigade being sent to the left, with the Thirty- 
fourth Iowa, Col. G. W. Clark, at its front. 

Night found Steele's whole line busy as beavers, with axe and 
spade, intrenching their position a thousand yards in front of 
the rebel works. They worked to the music of exploding shells 
and random musketry. Blakely was well situated for defense, 
and was almost as strongly fortified as Spanish Fort. It had a 
line of strong breastworks extending from the river on its right 
around to the river on its left, while interspersed along this semi- 
circular front were nine powerful redoubts armed with 40 can- 
non. In front were felled trees, three lines of abatis, and, 
between these, loaded torpedoes buried in the ground, prepared 
for explosion whenever touched. Here, as at Spanish Fort, the 
defenders were veteran soldiers of many battles. 

Rapidly the men proceeded with advancing their rifle pits, 
cutting galleries and trenches, parallels and approaches. The 
siege, and all that pertains to a siege, was begun. In a day or 
two, Veatch's division from Spanish Fort, and Garrard's division 
joined the besiegers and took position on the left. Every day 
witnessed skirmishing at the rifle pits; every day saw some ad- 
vance of the union lines. By the evening of the 5th of April, 
some of Steele's regiments had advanced to within eighty yards 



412 IOWA IKT WAR TIMES. 

of the rifle pits. Here and there the garrison would make a sor- 
tie — a sudden dash on the union lines, only to be driven back 
with loss. 

On the 5th day of the siege, an Iowa officer, Maj. Hutchinson 
of the Thirty-second, performed a gallant act by advancing his 
line three hundred yards under a heavy fire. With spades in 
one hand and rifles in the other, the major and his men of the 
Thirty-second advanced in a line as perfect as on dress parade, 
and when the distance was stepped off, stopped and fortified. 

Among the incidents of the siege were the little truces occa- 
sionally arranged for between the advanced sharpshooters and 
the men in the pits outside the rebel forts. It was not uncom- 
mon for these to meet half way, trade coffee for tobacco, ex- 
change newspapers, take a smoke and talk about the war. The 
half hour's truce ended, each sprang to his rifle pit or cover and 
the firing commenced again. All that went on in the curious 
sieges of Vicksburg and Atlanta, went on here. 

By Sunday morning, April the 9th, Steele had many cannon 
bearing on the rebel forts, while close by he had, if need were, 
the assistance of whole divisions fresh from the victory of Span- 
ish Fort. Blakely was doomed. The besiegers had now carried 
their parallels to within five hundred yards of the rebel works . 
Some were nearer still. That Sunday, it was resolved to assault 
the works. Certain signs and movements misled Steele's officers 
into supposing that the enemy were about to retreat and leave 
the forts. From an observatory built in tree tops behind the 
union line, steamboats full of troops had been discovered moving 
away from the Blakely wharf. Instantly, the soldiers burned 
for an advance. Gren. Steele set five-and-a-half o'clock that 
evening for the assault. 

Previous to the general attack, though for what reason does 
not seem clear, some of the colored troops at the left of Hawk- 
ins's division on the right, were ordered over the breastworks and 
engaged in a fearfully unequal combat at the front. Better 
fighting, however, never was done in war than by some of the 
colored men of Hawkins's division, left without proper support 
that afternoon. 



THE BATTLES FOR MOBILE. 413 

At 6 o'clock, the signal sounded and the general assault com- 
menced. Thirty-five regiments, or some 16,000 men, charging 
at once in a line nearly three miles long, was a sight to try the 
nerves of a garrison, however brave. On all the union front, 
select regiments had been placed as skirmishers, who, at the given 
moment, leaped over their intrenchments and with cheers dashed 
forward. From right to left of all that long line came the crash 
of musketry, the roar of cannon, the cheers of charging men. 
On right and left the brave regiments advanced under a fearful 
storm of shot and shell and rifle balls. Through the thick and 
dangerous abatis, under a hail of bullets, they charge over hid- 
den torpedoes into the rifle pits of Rebels who die rather than 
surrender. They mount the parapets over the breastworks, and 
fight with bayonets and hand to hand, till every enemy within 
that fiery line is wounded, dead or a prisoner. 

In front cf every division the battle is the same. It is the last 
ditch of the Rebellion — the last charge of the mighty war. Reg- 
iments have vied with regiments, divisions with divisions, color 
with color, in the ferocious combat, and all come off with honors 
alike. All have been heroes. Blakely is in the hands of the 
loyal army, and the union flag waves a greeting to its sister flag 
on the walls of Spanish Fort. 

Those of the Iowa regiments present at the front when the 
assault was made, did their whole duty and did it well. The 
Twenty-seventh and the Thirty-second regiments were in Gen. 
James I. Gilbert's brigade. They had as brigade comrades the 
Tenth Kansas, and the Sixth Minnesota. Haj. G. W. Howard 
led the Twenty-seventh, Lt.-Col. Eberhart the Thirty-second. 
The distance from their position to the rebel works was over a 
thousand yards, and the way was filled with felled trees, lines of 
abatis, and with wires stretched from stump to stump.* At the 
signal, the brigade left the rifle pits and, advancing with a shout, 
in spite of the resisting fire, carried the works in their front. 
They captured nine pieces of artillery and nearly 600 
prisoners in front of their own line. Company B of the Twenty- 



*Barb wire was not invented then. Its use in front of forts would have 
made an approach well nigh impossible. 



414 IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

seventh Iowa, that had been on the extreme advance as skir- 
mishers, was a band of heroes, said the brigade commander, and 
so was his Tenth Kansas. Maj. Hutchinson of the Thirty-sec- 
ond Iowa distinguished himself in the assault, and later in the 
capture of prisoners. The brigade lost 27 men, among the 
wounded being Lieut. Eisenhart of the Twent3'-seventh Towa. 
The Rebels had been pursued through their works into the range 
of their gunboats in the rear. As these were about to fire on 
the pursuers, Maj. Hutchinson checked them by holding a squad 
of prisoners in a position to make it impossible to fire without 
killing their own men. Gen. Gilbert of Iowa distinguished him- 
self in the command of his brigade in the assault and added to 
the just honors he had won on many fierce battle fields. 

The Twentieth Iowa under Lt.-Col. Leake, and the Thirty- 
fourth, consolidated with the Thirty-eighth, and led by Col. 
Clark, were in Moore's brigade of Andrews's division at the 
center.* Harder fighting was not done on all that storming line 
that day than was done by the men of Moore's brigade. The 
obstacles in the way of the charging men were fully as great as 
in front of the brigade of Gilbert, and the enemy defending the 
redoubt comprised one of the hardest fighting brigades of the 
rebel army. Over the lines of abatis, Moore's line of blue 
charged — over the lines of stakes driven into the ground and over 
the rebel redoubts — fighting and firing as they went. Eight 
hundred prisoners were taken, and Andrews's division became 
masters of a line of breastworks three quarters of a mile in length, 
with many cannon and battle flags. The Thirty-fourth Iowa 
lost 15 men in the charge — the Twentieth fortunately none, 
though its flag was shot through. The other Iowa regiments 
present were either but slightly engaged or were in the reserve. 

The assaulting and storming of the works had taken place at 
every point along the line and the regiments of many states won 

*The Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth Iowa had also been present and 
had assisted, though with small loss, at the reduction of Forts Morgan and 
Gaines by Farragut in the previous year, and Col. Clark had the honor of 
receiving the formal surrender of the former citadel. His regiment at 
Mobile was one of the very largest and best drilled in the whole army. 
Later, Clark was brevetted a brigadier for gallant services in the field, h:s 
commission dating from the day of the splendid charge at Blakely. 



THE BATTLES FOE MOBILE. 415 

honor for their charge on Blakely. The whole loss in the assault 
had been 127 killed and 527 wounded. Forty cannon, nearly 
4,000 prisoners and many battle flags fell into the union 
hands. 

Gen. Steele, it is said, rode into the fray with the main line of 
Moore's brigade, and witnessed the lines of blue scale the rebel 
works. " We have stormed the entire line of works, and our 
troops are in full possession," was the word Gren. Steele directed 
Asst. Adjt. Gen. Lacey to send to Canby straight from the battle 
field. Quickly came the answer, " God bless you, and God bless 
your brave command." 

That night some of the Iowa regiments camped inside of Fort 
Blakely. The remaining forts in the rivers and about the waters 
soon yielded, and on the morning of April the 4th the union flag, 
after an interval of four years, was again waving over the city 
of Mobile. * 

*No mention has been made in describing the events at Mobile of the part 
taken by the union navy at Spanish Fort, nor of the acts of the rebel gun- 
boats near to Blakely. Owing to shallow water and the presence of torpe- 
does, the federal ships could only occasionally reach within range of the 
forts, and two or three were destroyed by torpedoes in the attempt. The 
rebel vessels in the rivers annoyed our troops some, but their action had no 
effect on the progress of events. 



OHAPTEE XXXIII. 

SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 

There were some military names that stood out so pre-emi- 
nently in the state as to attract even national attention. Names 
like Dodge and Curtis and Crocker were well-known state names 
even before the cannon sounded the alarm of civil war. Gen- 
erals Corse, Belknap, Elliott, Hatch, Vandever and Herron rap- 
idly attracted attention, not from the state alone, but from the 
most eminent commanders in the field. 

Among the generals who led in the fierce struggle for Atlanta, 
there was one whose military genius and striking military suc- 
cesses reflected additional luster on the name of Iowa. 

It was fortunate for the Army of the Tennessee on that morn- 
ing of July 22d, when a large part of the rebel army of Atlanta 
struck the rear of the union lines, that Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, 
with a part of his Sixteenth army corps, was there to give it 
instant battle. Only two divisions of the Sixteenth corps were 
in the campaign, and one brigade of these was at Decatur 
during the battle of Atlanta, gallantly defending the trains, and 
another stationed at Rome. Hardee, the rebel commander of 
that assault in the rear, had not anticipated such sudden and 
such heroic resistance as Dodge made the moment the rebel col- 
umn appeared in sight. Of course it was mere accident that 
three of Gen. Dodge's brigades happened to be marching along 
through the woods close in the rear of the point the rebel army 
was about to attack. It was heroism, however, and rare gen- 
eralship, not accident, that enabled this part of the Sixteenth 
army corps to meet the rebel surprise with a surprise of its own, 
and hurl back and hold in check an enemy that outnumbered it 
five to one. It is painful to think what might have happened to 

(416) 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 417 

a part of, if not all of Sherman's army, had Dodge and his men 
been anywhere else than along that old wagon road just wheii 
the attack commenced. 

The corps was marching for its new position at the extreme 
left of the army, and at the moment of attack was resting at the 
roadside in the rear of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth corps. It 
numbered but 4,500 men, but its own valor, and the cool-headed 
sagacity of its leader made it appear a host to the rebel assailants. 
Dodge had been to the extreme left front of the army, selecting 
a position to fortify. He found the outer works of the enemy 
deserted and noticed the ominous stillness that portends a sudden 
storm. It was time, for at that very moment the rebel army 
was quietly and rapidly approaching his lines through the woods 
in the rear. He was scarcely back to the old roadside when the 
battle storm came on. Hood's army advanced out of the woods 
in three columns, and very shortly the attack was made along 
Dodge's whole line. Once the enemy's advancing line struck a 
pond and was obstructed. Dodge noticed the seeming disorder, 
and, quick as thought, ordered a charge on the embarrassed col- 
umns, drove them back, and prevented what in ten minutes 
might have been a disaster. Still the battle raged furiously, 
and passing to Dodge's right, the overpowering numbers of the 
enemy were attacking the rear of the Seventeenth corps. 

The course of the fierce battle that followed that day till dark- 
ness ended it, has already been described in the chapter on 
Atlanta. Dodge's troops fought their full share of it, and while 
part of his Sixteenth corps struggled so gallantly at the front, 
one of his brigades, under Gen. Sprague, was back at Decatur 
saving the wagon trains of the Army of the Tennessee. The 
valor of Sprague's men, on that occasion, was not surpassed in 
the whole campaign. With a single brigade they repulsed two 
whole divisions of rebel cavalry, charging them from different 
directions, and saved almost every wagon and horse of that 
enormous train. 

The men of one of Dodge's brigades, Mersey's, fighting under 
his eye, had served their time and were waiting the train to take 
them north. There was no power to compel them to enter this 
I. W. T.— 27 



418 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

awful battle, but, with patriotic hearts, they staid and laid their 
lives and mangled limbs as a sacrifice upon their country's altar. 
What must be thought of such loyalty! What must be said of 
a leader for whom brave men would court death recklessly ! Had 
Hood known of the valor of the men on that line, or of the 
heroic deeds of its leaders, he would have paused long before 
hurling his battalions to their own destruction. 

Four hundred and twenty-two of the enemy were killed and 
five times as many wounded that day in front of Gen. Dodge's 
little command. Eight battle flags were taken and many pris- 
oners. The command itself suffered fearfully. Nearly every field 
officer was killed or wounded, and out of the 5,400 men engaged, 
854 fell wounded or dead on the field. 

The military life of such a leader as Dodge proved himself to 
be in the battle of Atlanta, and elsewhere, is worthy of record. 
Born in Danvers, Mass., in April of 1831, he was barely thirty 
years of age at the outbreak of the rebellion. Young as he was, 
however, his life had already been one of note and usefulness. 
He had received considerable military training as a boy at Nor- 
wich University, and had as a classmate the brilliant young Gen. 
Ransom. Maj.-Gren. Terry was also a graduate of the Norwich 
institution. On coming to the West in 1861, young Dodge 
secured a position on the engineer corps of the Rock Island rail- 
road. His education at Norwich had been of the most practical 
and scientific character, and, in his chosen career, fitted him for 
important trusts. He had, besides, great native skill and talent 
as an engineer, and was soon entrusted with the survey of the 
Rock Island road to Peoria. While here at work he prophesied 
the building of, and the route for, the first great Pacific railroad, 
a line to which, in later years, he was to become so potently 
related. His Peoria survey finished, he was for some years in 
Iowa in the employ of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Com- 
pany. Afterwards he had a month's residence in the Elkhorn 
river region of Nebraska, where his life was almost nomadic, 
adventurous as that of the Indians with whom he was in con- 
stant contact. 

The hostile attacks of the Indians on the white settlements, 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 419 

soon led Dodge, who was now married to a most estimable lady 
of Peru, 111., to seek a quieter home at Council Bluffs. Here he 
was engaged in the manifold interests of a real estate dealer, a 
banker and a freighter across the plains. Amidst all the enter- 
prises which he successfully controlled, he also found time to 
exercise his military tastes by drilling a company of militia, of 
which he was the captain. No sooner was Sumter fired on than 
Dodge, like thousands of others in loyal Iowa, hastened to ten- 
der his sword, and, if need be, his life, for the preservation of 
the government. The state being out of arms, and no money 
to purchase with, Dodge was sent to Washington by Gov. Kirk- 
wood to appeal to the government for guns and ammunition. 
By his immense zeal and energy he succeeded where Iowa con- 
gressmen had failed. The War Department, recognizing his 
ability and push, offered him a captain's commission in the reg- 
ular army. He declined it, preferring to serve Iowa. Then an 
additional regiment of Iowa volunteers was accepted from the 
governor on the express condition that Dodge should be its 
colonel. The Fourth Iowa infantry was immediately organized 
at Council Bluffs, and in two weeks 1 time Col. Dodge was lead- 
ing it against the Rebels in northern Missouri. It was the 
state's first great military campaign, and it was quick and deci- 
sive. By October of 1861, Col. Dodge was stationed in Rolla, 
Missouri, as commandant of the post, and by mid-winter he was 
leading a brigade in Gen. Curtis 1 s army of the Southwest, march- 
ing for Springfield. The rigors of that mid-winter march, and 
the extraordinary promptness with which it was executed, have 
been related in a former chapter. 

Dodge's own regiment, the Fourth, must have had breathed 
into it the strong, patriotic military spirit that animated its 
commander. It became one of the hard-fighting regiments of 
the state; and some of the officers, like Williamson, the adjutant, 
and Dodge, the colonel, rose to high positions of trust and 
honor. When the regiment was organized, Dodge at the same 
time recruited a battery, which did excellent service through the 
war. He did not wait for the government to slowly clothe and 
equip his regiment and battery, but pledged his own credit, and 



420 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

they were promptly fitted for the field. Gen. Curtis, in assign- 
ing officers to command of divisions in the southwest campaign, 
inconsiderately, and in violation of military usages, selected 
Davis and Carr, who were in fact outranked by some of the brig- 
ade commanders, notably Dodge. One of the brigade commaud- 
ers refused to serve, as a result, but Dodge loyally waived his 
own rights and served his inferiors in rank with the same zeal 
he would have manifested had he led the whole army. There 
was some courtesy, tact and gratitude due Dodge from Curtis at 
the time, had he known, as possibly he did not, the circumstances 
relating to his own appointment as brigadier general. Certain 
influential people in Washington in whom the Secretary of War 
confided, were not friendly to Curtis, and urged that Iowa's first 
general's commission be given to Dodge. The Secretary of War 
favored the selection, but Dodge, himself, mistrusting his own 
ability, declined the commission. It was then that he was made 
colonel of the Fourth Iowa infantry. 

But as narrated, Dodge, in command of his brigade, forgot 
his grievance, whether intended by Curtis or not, and zealously 
struggled on for the good of the army. That was a horrible 
winter for an army, whether at the sickly post of Rolla, or on 
the hard campaign through mud and cold and storm. Dodge's 
men (the Fourth Iowa) first entered Springfield, and his brigade 
bore its part in the minor battles of the march south. In the 
fierce battle of Pea Ridge, Dodge's gallant brigade saved Curtis's 
army from disaster. A cooler head, a more competent general, 
a braver man, was not on that battle field. No soldiers amidst 
that awful storm of bullets, grape-shot and cannon ball were 
more heroic than the soldiers of Dodge's brigade. There they 
stood in the fearful range of battle, their leader wounded and 
bleeding, a third of their number dead, dying or wounded, their 
supports driven back, an enemy five times their own number in 
their front, and when the order came to retreat and save them- 
selves, Col. Dodge fought on, and simply sent back the word 
that to retreat was ruin. Only when every cartridge box was 
empty, and the line flanked, did that brigade of warriors move a 
foot. Meeting Curtis, the chief commander, on their way, they 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 421 

turned again at his order, and with their bare and glistening 
steel drove the pursuing enemy to cover. Such fighting and 
such a leader as Dodge, saved disaster, and won the victory of 
the battle of Pea Ridge. 

No wonder Gov. Kirkwood wrote to the Washington officials 
— "This man is emphatically a fighting man." No wonder a 
grateful government hastened to confer on the brave soldier the 
commission of a brigadier general. It was one of those cases 
where promotion had been earned, not by political trickstering, 
but by capacity and bravery in battle, a capacity and bravery 
recognized by every officer and soldier in the Pea Ridge conflict, 
and by every one who believed that the art of war consisted in 
cool headed, hard fighting. 

Dodge was badly wounded at Pea Ridge. So, too, was every 
field officer in his brigade. Four horses had been shot under 
Dodge, three of them killed, one of them with twenty rifle 
balls in his body. It was a wonder he had escaped alive. 
Recovering from his wounds a little (he had also been shot once 
in the winter at Rolla), he was assigned to duty at Columbus, 
Kentucky, with the task set before him of rebuilding the Mobile 
and Ohio railroad, recently destroyed. With characteristic 
energy, the great work was undertaken of building a railroad 
through a long stretch of the enemy's country where every mile 
had to be watched, and every stream and bridge guarded from 
guerrillas. But Gen. Dodge had the ability and the courage for 
just such a work. That line of road was an absolute necessity 
to Grant's army at Corinth. It was his road back to his provis- 
ions. With such earnestness was the work pushed, the 26th of 
June saw trains running from Columbus to Corinth. Gen. Hal- 
leck so appreciated the important work done that he at once, as 
a reward, promoted Gen. Dodge to the command of the Central 
division of the Mississippi. The great problem he now had to 
deal with, was the murderous guerrilla warfare waged against all 
railroads in his department, and against all wagon trains, and all 
detachments of troops wherever surprised. It had been a custom 
to treat these outlaws as soldiers. Gen. Dodge cut the Gordian 
knot of the dilemma by shooting and hanging guerrillas as fast 



422 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

as captured. Many of these gentlemen of the road, not relish- 
ing his method, soon went out of the business, and the 
great highway which his troops had built, became safe for 
military uses. In every direction, his vigilance and his energy 
were such that in his department order came out of chaos. 
Expeditions were fitted out against raiders, and their command- 
ers were captured or dispersed. Such skill in administration of 
the tangled affairs of a large military department had scarcely 
ever been witnessed. It soon attracted the attention of Gen. 
Grant, who very shortly (November 15, 1862) appointed Dodge 
to the command of the important district of Corinth. 

Complex and multifarious in an administrative and military 
sense as his new duties became, he managed them in such a man- 
ner as to bring honor to himself and great good to Grant's army. 
All sorts of business talent, and in perfection, were required in 
his position of general, engineer, judge, railroad manager, col- 
lector of news, chief of corps of observation, etc., etc. A dozen 
talents were necessary, and the physical strength of a giant. 
Dodge's corps of scouts, spies and informers covered the left 
flank of Grant's army at Corinth, and reached to the army of 
Rosecrans at Chattanooga. Both these armies relied on him for 
all information as to the movements of the enemy, and they 
never relied in vain. Everything with him was reduced to a 
system. Though his troops were of necessity scattered all over 
his department, they were almost never defeated by dashing 
raids of the enemy. They were kept too well in hand, but woe 
to the raiding party discovered on his territory, for pursuit and 
destruction almost surely awaited them. Forrest tried it, and 
Ferguson and Roddy and others, only to come to grief, while a 
dozen towns with their garrisons submitted to his call to sur- 
render. His successes were owing to his great energy, his per- 
fect momentum in pursuit and his thorough knowledge of the 
enemy's movements. 

It has been well said that his enterprise embraced every phase 
and feature of successful warfare. He built all railroads needed 
in his own department, and those that could be of use to the 
enemy, he destroyed. He turned the refugees and the contrabands 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 423 

into soldiers and supported thousands of their families from the 
proceeds of their labor. He had scouts and spies everywhere 
within the rebel lines, and hung the rebel spies whenever cap- 
tured. He was of great assistance to the raiding parties 
sent around the flanks of the enemy. In one of these raids, 
started under his protection, $20,000,000 worth of supplies in- 
tended for Bragg's army was destroyed. He seemed never to 
rest. It was work, constant work, and being forever wide awake. 
It is extremely doubtful if such military and adminstrative 
activity was witnessed elsewhere during the war. 

About this time, President Lincoln, aware of Dodge's great 
business qualities, asked him to come to Washington to consult 
with him touching the building of the great Pacific Railroad, and 
as to the proper starting point of that national highway, a high- 
way with which he was to become most intimately connected in 
later years. 

Vicksburg fell, and Gen. Grant recognized the hands and the 
heads that had, though acting at distant points, aided in the sub- 
jugation of the key to the Mississippi river. Dodge was promptly 
recommended for important promotion. Then came Chatta- 
nooga, and as the crisis approached, Gen. Grant, who had been 
selected to succeed Rosecrans, knew the men on whom he could 
rely. First, was his great lieutenant, Sherman, and the vigorous 
commanders that general might bring with him across the coun- 
try from Memphis. " Bring Dodge along, 1 ' he wrote, " he is an 
officer on whom you can rely in an emergency." Dodge went 
because Grant knew he had few equals as a fighting general; but 
he was little over half the march to Chattanooga when Grant saw 
he must have another railroad or his troops might starve. There 
was no other such railroad builder and bridge builder in the 
United States as Dodge, and reluctantly Gen. Grant ordered him 
to halt and rebuild the railroad from Decatur to Nashville. It 
was a Herculean task to be performed in the presence of an 
enemy, and the road was one hundred and two miles long. Dodge 
had no tools to work with save the axes, picks and shovels of the 
pioneer corps; no mechanics save those detailed from his army; 
no food save that to be gathered from the enemy's country. He 



424 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

promptly stretched his command along the railroad, built block 
houses for defense, gathered in all the blacksmith shops, mills, 
iron and steel, etc., from the surrounding country, moved all the 
mills and the shops within his lines, put them all to work with 
detailed soldiers, and the tremendous task commenced. In a 
night attack, Decatur and its garrison were captured, and in 
forty days, with the aid of 12,000 soldiers, the road with its 182 
bridges and trestles, was rebuilt, guarded, and ready for use. It 
had been built over deep chasms and rapid rivers. Such rapid 
work in railroad building, and under such circumstances, the 
world has never seen. It was the labor of giants. It was such 
labor and such generalship that made the victories of Chatta- 
nooga, Atlanta and the March to the Sea possibilities. 

In the Atlanta campaign, Dodge's corps was the first through 
the famous Snake Creek Gap: it had fought hard at Dallas, at 
Kenesaw and at Ruff's Mills. When the army reached the rapid 
Chattahoochie river, the bridges and the ferries were all 
destroyed. Again Dodge was called on, and the old zeal, the 
immense vigor and wonderful skill of adaptation were as ready 
as before. In three days' time, Dodge's men, working in the 
mud and the water, built a substantial double-track bridge, four- 
teen feet high and 1,700 feet long. It was the military marvel 
of the time. Three days before, the material for that bridge 
was growing in the forest. Now over it crossed in perfect safety 
the whole Army of the Tennessee, with all its wagons and trains 
of artillery. This bridge was one of the great factors that 
made it possible for Sherman's army to close so suddenly on 
Atlanta. 

In a few days, Gen. Dodge, leading his corps to the left of 
Sherman's army, was attacked, and there followed the battle of 
Atlanta, as fierce a struggle as was witnessed in the war. Dodge's 
part in it has already been narrated. Gen. McPherson, a few 
minutes before his death, rode up, and, with a staff officer, wit- 
nessed a part of the bloody conflict, and then silently rode out 
in the woods to his untimely end. '"That battle in front of 
Dodge," says a staff officer who was with McPherson, " was 
grand and impressive; the columns of the enemy closed up under 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 425 

our storm of lead and iron hail that mowed great swathes in 
their lines; but it was too much for blood and flesh to stand, 
and before reaching the center of the field in our front, their 
columns were broken and confused, when Dodge's men with 
fixed bayonets drove them back. Had the Sixteenth corps 
(Dodge's) given way, the rebel army would have been in the 
rear of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth corps, and would have 
swept like an avalanche over our supply train." 

Possibly here, as at Pea Ridge, Gen. Dodge saved the union 
army from disaster, for the attack had been a surprise and the 
force overwhelming. In the hard battle of that July day, more 
men were killed and wounded in Dodge's command than in any 
other organization of equal numbers on the field, and he lost 
few prisoners. On the 19th of August, while inspecting the 
enemy's works about Atlanta, Gen. Dodge was wounded in the 
head by a rebel sharpshooter. It was his third wound, and he 
was borne to the rear, to the regret of every soldier in the 
army. 

After recovering from his serious wound, the President, at the 
special request of Gen. Grant, appointed him to succeed Gen. 
Rosecraus in the command of the department of Missouri. 
Later, the command was extended to include Kansas and 
Nebraska, where Curtis had been relieved, and where a great 
Indian war was already breaking out. Dodge, who had long 
since been made a major general, found a field of duty almost 
as difficult and as complex in the rebel-beridden state of Mis- 
souri as he had once governed at Corinth. The same energy 
and zeal, however, enabled him to bring order out of chaos even 
in Missouri, and the close of his career in the service of the 
government was marked with the same degree of loyalty, zeal 
and success with which it had begun. The country captain 
who had drilled his little company of rifles in Council Bluffs at 
the outbreak of the war, and who had led but a single regiment 
into Missouri, ended his military career as a major general, a 
commander of departments and a leader of many thousands of 
brave soldiers. 

It was not in his own state alone that the great military abili- 



426 IOWA Itf WAR TIMES. 

ties of Gen. Dodge were appreciated. The leading commanders 
in the war recognized what the country owed to his services. 
" While I was in Washington," wrote Gen. Grant to Gen. 
Halleck, kt I urged the removal o£ Rosecrans and the substitution 
of Dodge in his place. I would like you to urge this upon the 
President/' 

Later, it was a wish of Grant to have Gen. Dodge at the head 
of the War Department, but important private business inter- 
ests interfered. " Dodge," said Gen. Sherman, kW was one of the 
generals who actually fought throughout the civil war, and with 
great skill, and with great honor; but for the blood of just such 
men as Gen. Dodge, the government might have perished." 

Gen. Dodge's career, since the war days, has been one of great 
business and political importance. His friends insisted on his 
being a candidate for congress from Des Moines. He was 
elected over a rival possessed of as many and varied accomplish- 
ments as any man in Iowa, and on going to Washington was 
recognized as an authority on all great national questions. Great 
capitalists and railway magnates were speedily attracted to the 
bold and sagacious leader who had accomplished tasks in railway 
construction that had astonished the country. His important 
duties in connection with the completion of the Union Pacific — 
a directorship and the executive position he held in that great 
corporation, led him to decline re-election to congress. In Iowa 
he is still a great projector and constructor of railways, and is 
credited with near association with the first capitalists of the 
nation. His home is still in Council Bluffs, though a large 
portion of his time is spent in New York City, where his counsel 
is sought by capitalists and organizers. 



Maj.-Gen. Samuel R. Curtis was another of Iowa's most con- 
spicuous figures in the war time. He was Iowa's first brigade- 
general, and as a member of congress from the state had 
brought both it and the nation advantage, and himself national 
reputation. His name will always be linked with the Pacific 
railway as an earnest first advocate of the scheme, as a life long 
promoter of its interests, and as the great first promoter of lines 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 427 

that should bind the extremes of the continent together with 
bands of steel. The commerce and the trade of America owe 
to his name an unusual recognition. 

When Samael R. Curtis first advocated on the floors of con- 
gress the building of a Pacific railroad over the Rocky moun- 
tains, the proposition was looked upon as the scheme of vision- 
aries. All the same, Curtis pursued the even tenor of his way, 
working in committee of congress and out of committee, to 
secure attention, until at last a bill was proposed. Later, the 
mighty work was undertaken. A railroad to China would not 
have been thought less practicable by many of the wiseacres in 
congress than this proposed railroad to California. 

Col a tubus, at the court of Spain, showed how a;i egg could 
be made to stand on end, and then all the king's courtiers found 
the trick easy. Curtis showed American engiueers how to build 
a railroad over the Rocky mountains, and since then all the 
engineers in the country are busy with stretching lines across 
the plains and over the mountains to the western sea. 

Curtis had been educated as an engineer officer at West Point. 
His education served him well later as harbor engineer of St. 
Louis, and later still as engineer of the American Central rail- 
way, and chief engineer of the Des Moines river improvements. 

But most of all, this education and these experiences served 
him in his great battle for the Pacific road. 

He had served in the Mexican war as colonel of an Ohio regi- 
ment, and also on the staff of Gen. Wool. Even before the 
Mexican war, he had been a successful lawyer. As a business 
man, reliable and honorable, his name was well known all over 
Iowa in the years preceding the great rebellion. When the war 
signal sounded at Sumter, Curtis resigned a seat in congress and 
on the 1st of June was unanimously elected colonel of the 
Second Iowa infantry. He was the first officer to lead an Iowa 
command out of the state. 

Shortly, Gen. Scott secured for Col. Curtis the appointment 
of brigadier general, and that autumn of 1861 he held the most 
important and delicate commands at St. Louis. This was espe- 
cially the case at the time of Gen. Fremont's removal. He had 



428 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

also formed and commanded the camp of instruction at Benton 
Barracks, and thousands of Western soldiers received there their 
first training in war. 

In the early winter of 1861-2, Gen. Halleck selected Curtis 
to command the army of the Southwest. He was to march 
against the rebel general Price, then collecting a large army at 
Springfield. His great success in that campaign and his brill- 
iant battle of Pea Ridge have already been related. For subor- 
dinates he had such officers as Sigel, Carr, Osterhaus, Herron, 
Dodge and Davis, a galaxy of commanders who won reputation 
on many fields. 

The campaign was a brilliant one, and justly attracted the 
notice of the whole country. It made Curtis a major gen- 
eral and Dodge and Sigel brigadiers. After a needed rest on the 
field of his victory, Curtis and his army set out on one of the 
severest and most difficult marches of any war. It was the march 
from Boston Mountains to the Mississippi river. Rolla, the 
main base of supplies, was left hundreds of miles behind, and 
Curtis with his bold army plunged into the desolation, the 
swamps and the wilderness of Northern Arkansas. Over prim- 
itive roads, where there were any roads at ail, on half rations, 
sometimes on almost no rations, the column marched in the 
direction of Little Rock, intending to capture and hold the town. 
But endless rains and bottomless mires at last made the way 
simply impassable. The column fairly stuck fast in the swamps 
and cane brakes of an inhospitable region. The campaign for 
Little Rock was abandoned and the half famished army returned 
as far as Batesville. After a long delay, waiting a cessation of 
the almost tropical rains and an improvement of the roads, the 
column again moved — this time in search of something to eat, 
and a new base that might connect them with the outer world. 
A hundred miles and more away was Clarendon, on the White 
river. To this point the union gunboats sometimes ascended, 
and. once there, thought Curtis and his army, we may find sup- 
plies. Communication with the North was absolutely cut off, and 
the roads in front, on flanks, and in rear, were watched by mur- 
derous bands of guerrillas. 



SOME IOWA COMMANDEKS. 429 

On the 4th of July the column started with fresh hopes on the 
long road to Clarendon. There, there would be rest, and food, 
and, perhaps shoes for the bleeding feet. In the mid-summer 
heat of an Arkansas climate, through the endless cane brakes 
and cypress swamps, fighting guerrillas by day and swarms of 
mosquitoes by night, the column trudged on and reached White 
river only to find the gunboats gone a few short hours before. 
It was a bitter, disappointing time for the foot-sore, ragged and 
hungry army. But not for one moment was the soldiers' confi- 
dence lost in their brave leader. Gen. Curtis could not control 
the elements, nor time, nor accidents. Turning to him, they 
only asked what they should now do. 

Almost another hundred miles away, as the roads run, is the 
Mississippi river. "We will try that," said Gen. Curtis, and 
with brave hearts the tired and hungry little army once more 
started on the march. There was almost no water for man or 
beast on the thinly populated route. Where it had, a few 
weeks before, been nothing but water, now there was none at all, 
or the little that there was, was not infrequently poisoned by the 
bands of rebel murderers who retreated hour by hour before the 
advance of the union army.* A few days more of dust, heat, 
rags and hunger, and Curtis's army beheld the Mississippi river 
at Helena. It was a glad sight for the half famished column. 
It was like getting into " God's country" cried the soldiers, just to 
see a great, free river, union gunboats, and well-fed union boys 
in blue. In a sense, the army had for weary months been prison- 
ers in the desolation of central Arkansas. The severe march 
proved how uncomplainingly the American soldier could bear 
privation, hunger and hardship, when his country's honor was at 
stake. It proved, too, the soldiers' confidence in their leader. 

Gen. Curtis was soon called to St. Louis and placed in com- 
mand of the Department of Missouri, at that time the most 
difficult department to govern of any in the country. The city 
was a city of secessionists. Union soldiers were murdered 

*Gen. Curtis had reason to guard against these infamous bands of out- 
laws, for one of them (Quantrell's) had barbarously murdered his own son 
who was his chief of staff. 



430 TOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

nightly, and sympathy and aid for the Rebels fighting all over 
the state were openly and defiantly extended. Spite of the thou- 
sand difficulties surrounding his position, Gen. Curtis governed 
well. He not only managed the rebel element of St. Louis and 
put to rout the enemies of the country in that secession center; 
he also won battles with his armies in the field. He kept the 
leaders of his Missouri armies well supplied with troops and the 
munitions of war, and with information as to every movement 
of the enemy. Though at a distance from the field, he directed 
everything, and it has been said of him that he never lost a 
battle. 

But his dealing with Rebels in Missouri was too radical and 
too successful to please the conservative, half loyal element of 
Missouri. In an evil moment, President Lincoln listened to the 
counsels of men who did not have the country's interest half as 
much at heart as Gen. Curtis did. He was simply too loyal, too 
vigorous, too much of an American patriot, too good a union 
soldier. For political reasons, the President relieved Curtis of 
his important command. Lincoln had to make his peace with 
the conservative element of Missouri, or lose the state's vote in 
the convention for the presidency. He lost the vote, notwith- 
standing his sacrifice of one of his best commanders. 

Curtis was now sent to the command of the Department of 
Kansas, also an important one, including most of the former, 
except that the rebel state of Missouri was left out. His head- 
quarters were at Leavenworth, and there he exhibited the same 
military capacity, the same loyal zeal as before. When the 
rebel general, Price, and his army strode clear across Missouri 
in the fall of 1864, and approached Leavenworth, swearing to 
take it, its defenses and its vast supplies, Gen. Curtis, with a 
vastly inferior force, took the field and drove the bold invader 
clear away from Kansas, out of Missouri and far into the hidden 
swamps and mountain fastnesses of Arkansas. In half a dozen 
battles and twice as many skirmishes, he beat the rebel army and 
compelled its leaders to admit a loss of 10,000 men in the cam- 
paign. In the pursuit of Price and in the return, Curtis's men 
had made a march of 900 miles, and in the battles he had gained, 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 431 

but 1,800 union men had been killed and wounded. It was of 
such leadership the state of Iowa had just reason to be proud. 

Gen. Curtis was a military man who had great pride in his 
calling, great ambition for success. He was a man of grand 
personal appearance, possessed of great self control, unruffled 
temper, calm judgment — 'good sense. Iowa may wait long for 
a man capable of conferring greater honor on the commonwealth. 



Another of the brilliant military galaxy of whom Iowa was 
proud in the " War Times,' 1 and whose name and deeds shed 
lustre on the state, was brevet Maj.-Gen. Wm. W. Belknap, who 
entered the union service as major of the Fifteenth infantry, and 
who ended his military career as Secretary of War, in the cabinet 
of the greatest captain of modern times. He was the beau ideal 
of an American soldier — a man of finest physique, courageous to 
an extreme, trained in the art of war, in love with his profes- 
sion, of popular manners — and a patriot. Nature and education 
had combined to make him a successful soldier. His father 
before him had been a distinguished officer in the regular army, 
and served with honor in the earlier wars of the republic. For 
personal gallantry he had been brevetted brigadier general at 
the battle of Buena Vista, and he died in Texas while in his 
country's service. His son, born in New York state in 1829, 
and graduated at Princeton College in 1848, partook of the 
father's love of country, and later of his love of war. As a 
young man he studied law at Washington City and entered upon 
his profession in Keokuk, Iowa, as a partner of the Hon. Ralph 
P. Lowe, later supreme judge and governor of the state. As a 
Douglas Democrat, Belknap was elected to the Iowa legislature 
in 1857. 

When the war tocsin sounded, Belknap was successfully prac- 
ticing his profession at Keokuk, where, as captain of a company 
of Rifles, he found exercise for his military tastes. Gov. Kirk- 
wood promptly made him major of the Fifteenth regiment, a 
command of which his brother-in-law, Hugh T. Reid, was colonel. 

His personal gallantry and his coolness in danger won for him 
the attention of his chief commander in his very first battle. 



4:32 IOWA H* WAR TIMES. 

Belknap was brave at Shiloh, as he was in every battle where his 
sword was drawn. Courage, presence of mind in posts of danger, 
and cool sense in leading men in peril were the qualities he 
possessed. Shortly he became colonel of his regiment, one of 
the distinguished organizations that reflected credit on Iowa in 
the war. He led this brave command in the battle of Corinth 
and won for himself the praise of his brigade commander for 
gallantry. All through the Vicksburg campaign, his history 
and that of his regiment were one, though for a time he had 
served on the staff of the accomplished Gen. McPherson. 

In the great Atlanta campaign, a campaign more noted for 
constant battles and for eventual success than any campaign in 
the war, he bore a conspicuous part. In ibe terrible struggle 
of the 22d of July, when the left wing of the union army was 
surprised, and for a time overwhelmed and almost beaten, there 
was no braver man than Belknap in hurling the Rebels back. 
It was a day noted for personal and individual valor. The key 
points were held, and the supremest conflicts waged, not by 
whole army corps nor by solid marching divisions, but by single 
regiments and fractions of regiments, led to deeds of awful 
daring by the valor of men like Belknap. He and the noble 
and now lamented Hedrick, were at their midday lunch when 
the unexpected and terrible assault was commenced on front, 
flank and rear of their command. Instantly they buckled on 
their swords, and instantly the brave Iowa brigade, the Eleventh, 
Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth regiments, led by Col. 
William Hall of the Eleventh, was in the midst of one of the 
terrible engagements of the war. 

Belknap's personal valor on that fierce afternoon of battle 
brought him just renown. The whole division in which the 
Iowa regiments served, fought like heroes, and a disaster to the 
left wing, if not to the whole of Sherman's army, was averted 
largely by the fighting of Iowa soldiers, whether under Giles A. 
Smith or the intrepid Gen. Dodge. To the Iowa brigade and 
Belknap's Fifteenth Iowa, fell some of the severest fighting of 
the war. There was no battle front. Every post and every 
direction was the post and the direction of danger. The rear 



SOME IOAVA COMMANDERS. 433 

and the front were synonymous terms, and the flanks became 
centers and the centers flanks. There was no safe spot to fly to 
on all that battle field. If the front were dangerous, the rear 
was more dangerous still. The gallant Lt.-Col. Hedrick, shot at 
the front, was borne rearwards only to be shot again. At the 
very commencement of the conflict, the beloved McPherson was 
shot dead, at a point where no enemy was thought to be. The 
same line of breastworks was used for friend or foe, fighting now 
on this side, now on that, and sometimes, at different parts of 
the breastwork, fighting from both sides at once. There were 
few commands from general officers. There could be only few. 
Each regiment, each part of a regiment, fought for itself — each 
officer, each soldier, doing the work right before him, trusting to 
sword, to musket or to bayonet, to save his life and the army. 

Once during the fight the enemy advanced in solid column, 
three lines deep, and was driven back in confusion by Hall's and 
Potts's brigades. " It was not five minutes," says Gen. Smith, 
" from the repulse of this last assault, when another desperate 
attempt was made from the opposite side of Hall's brigade. 
Again the men jumped over their works, and the most desperate 
fight of the day now took place. The enemy, having the cover 
of the woods, could approach in many places within fifteen or 
twenty yards of our works without discovery. Rebel command- 
ers, with such men as would follow them, would not infrequently 
occupy one side of the works and our men the other. Many 
individual acts of heroism here occurred. The flags of two 
opposing regiments would meet on the opposite side of the 
same works and would be flaunted by their respective bearers 
in each other's faces. Men were bayoneted across the works, 
and officers with their swords fought hand to hand with men 
with bayonets. Col. Belknap took prisoner Col. Lampley of the 
Forty-fifth Alabama, pulling him over the works by his coat 
collar, while being several times fired at by men at his side. 
( Several times during this hot battle that lasted from noon 
till seven in the evening, the union line changed position. Four 
times during the battle the men were compelled by attacks in 
their rear to change from one side of the works to the other. 
I. W. T.— 28 



434: IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

The loss of Smith's hard-fighting division where the Iowa brig- 
ade stood, was 1,040 men, but the enemy lost 4,000 on the same 
short line. "Col. Belknap," in this fight, says the division com- 
mander, "displayed all the qualities of an accomplished soldier." 
Nowhere in the history of warfare on this continent did oppos- 
ing soldiers fight with greater desperation than did the soldiers 
fighting that day for the victory at Atlanta. Belknap, through- 
out the engagement, say his comrades and commanders, showed 
a complete disregard for personal danger. He not only cheered 
his men by his voice, but nerved them by fighting himself in the 
hottest of the conflict. His valor and his ability justly won him 
the regard of his superior officers, and a promotion over which 
his whole command rejoiced. 

On the 30th of July he was made a brigadier general, and 
was put in command of the famous Crocker brigade. To lead 
such a command was an honor to any officer, however high his 
rank or valorous his deeds. In the succeeding battles about 
Atlanta, Belknap won additional reputation as a clear-headed 
man in battle, and in the autumn following led his gallant brig- 
ade with Sherman to the sea. In the short siege of Savannah, 
at the taking of Columbia and at Bentonsville, Sherman's last 
battle of the war, this command occupied, as ever, responsible 
and arduous positions. 

When the great review of the armies at Washington was 
over, Belknap was placed in command for a while of a division, 
and then of a corps, being at the same time brevetted major 
general of volunteers. His career drew to him the confidence 
and friendship of Gen. Grant, who gave him a valuable civil 
appointment as a revenue collector in Iowa, and later called him 
to a place in his cabinet as Secretary of War. 



One of Iowa's brigade commanders who won distinction, was 
Marcellus M. Crocker. He was a man of note in Iowa, even 
before the war demanded its volunteers and its victims. There 
was possibly not a better known criminal lawyer in all the state 
in the spring of 1861 than he who soon became captain of Com- 
pany D, of the Second Iowa infantry. 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 435 

From his home in Des Moines he was called to many of the 
noted criminal trials all over Iowa. He possessed a wonderful 
zeal for his clients' interests and seldom lost his case. He was 
a bold and magnetic speaker and full of resources. The effect 
of his jury arguments was often magical. He never knew the 
word "fail" in anything. Even as a boy he had exhibited the 
qualities that were to mark him a man among men. His father, 
Col. James Gr. Crocker, died in 1847, while the boy was a cadet 
at West Point. A large family of young children was left for 
a mother in poor circumstances to support. The young cadet, 
the oldest of the children, realized the situation, threw up his 
appointment at the military institution, and hurried home to 
aid in earning bread for the family. Near to the little village 
of Lancaster, in Keokuk county, was the home farm, a bit of 
land and a rude cabin on the prairie. "As long as I live," said 
Gen. Williamson, a friend of Crocker's, " I shall remember the 
manly struggle and the heroic conduct of the boy in that cold, 
bad winter of 1848-9, when his utmost endurance was tried just 
to keep his mother and the younger members of the family from 
starving and freezing." And this was the brilliant, the success- 
ful, the heroic Crocker's start in life. 

In another year the boy moved the family into the village and 
supported it there by teaching school, while his spare hours 
were spent in studying law books. There were no law schools, 
no law lectures, no strong colleges in the prairies of the West 
in those days to educate and hold up the hands of young aspir- 
ants to the bar. Iowa's most brilliant criminal lawyer educated 
himself largely by the light of a tallow candle, in a cabin of a 
frontier village. How well he did it, his wonderful success in 
his profession proved. 

Crocker was born for success, but not the success of accident. 
Every step he took upward in life was carved by the strength of 
his will and the fire of his zeal. 

When the war came, he was a man of note. He did not wait 
to be appointed colonel of a regiment before answering to his 
country's call in its distress, but promptly marched to the sol- 
diers' camp with his little band of a hundred men — and with the 



436 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

zeal of his boyhood did the work that lay nearest, trusting to 
his own sword and his valor for the rest. He was shortly pro- 
moted to be major of his regiment (the Second) and in a few 
months Gov. Kirkwood selected him to be colonel of the Thir- 
teenth Iowa infantry. In the great battle baptism of Shiloh, 
there was not a cooler nor a braver colonel on the field. His 
opportunity had come, and with one of the bravest of regiments 
he prove the mettle of the man. As has elsewhere been stated, 
Crocker, on that day, by coolness under fire and by personal 
valor, made the foundation of his military fame. His regiment 
was a brave one, and before the conflict ended, its colonel was 
leading the brigade. 

Many of the Iowa commands and Iowa commanders won 
fame in that awful battle, but few of the regiments more deserv- 
edly than the regiment led by Col. Crocker, and none of the 
commanders more deservedly than Crocker himself. 

The battle over, the famous "Crocker" brigade was shortly 
organized and placed under his command. It was a command of 
Iowa men alone, composed of the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fif- 
teenth and Sixteenth regiments. The brigading of these Iowa 
regiments together, to be led by an Iowa man, was the work of 
Col. W. T. Clark, later brevet major general. He had long plan- 
ned for it and the heroism of the Iowa men at Shiloh and the 
military abilities of Crocker exhibited there, at last moved Gen. 
Grant to listen to his appeal. What a brigade this became in the 
history of the war! "Crocker's Iowa brigade will ever hold a place 
in the history of the Civil War," said Gen. Sherman. " It is a 
brigade," said Gen. Grant, " renowned for its marches, its battles, 
its losses, and for the high soldierly qualities of its first com- 
mander." It became the Third brigade of the Fourth division 
of the Seventeenth army corps, but it was shortly known to the 
army as "The Iowa, or Crocker brigade." It was the only 
one in the army of the Tennessee, or in the army of the Union, 
that held its original organization to the end of the war. 

For many months, Crocker's history and the brigade's history 
were one. Owing to Crocker's perfect and thorough discipline, 
the command became renowned for promptness of movement, 



SOME IOWA COMMANDEKS. 437 

soldierly demeanor and gallantry in action. The army inspector 
found no regiments better trained, no camps so clean and well- 
ordered, no arms so well prepared for battle, no braver men. In 
the terrific conflicts about Atlanta, the brigade, now led by Col. 
Hall of the Eleventh, not only helped to save disaster to the 
army, but its hard fighting won the warmest encomiums from 
a brave foe. Not less than 20 rebel regiments assaulted it in 
turn, in a vain hope of capturing its position. It was in this 
assault that a single shot from young de Gress's battery in the 
Fifteenth corps, killed or wounded everv man but one in a rebel 
cavalry company of 18 men. In a few short minutes this single 
battery placed 140 men hors de combat. The rebel attack on 
our position was certainly one of the fiercest ever made by an 
army, and its repulse as fierce as the onslaught. The hand and 
spirit of the trainer were in every movement of the brigade. 

Crocker himself had long before been given the command of 
a division. When the last and successful campaign on Vicks- 
burg was begun, in the spring of 1863, Gen. McPherson directed 
Crocker to lead the division of Quinby, who was then in the 
North on leave. This was one of the hard fighting divisions of 
the army. Its regiment had seen many battles and Crocker 
fouud the men the very best type of the western soldier. They 
were well trained, inured to hardship, and they would fight. 
Earlier chapters have recorded the heroism of Crocker's men at 
Jackson, at Champion Hills, and in the assault on Vicksburg. 

But Crocker was a sick man. He had never been strong, the 
rigors of the last campaign had been severe and constant, and 
consumption had already marked the brave soldier as a victim. 
There was no choice but to come north, rest, and, if possible, 
recuperate. Gen. Grant urged this course on him personally. 
It was in the summer of 1863 that Crocker came to his home in 
Des Moines. It happened that the "Union 1 ' convention to 
nominate a governor was soon in session. He was the choice of 
those present for the nomination and he was urged to accept the 
honor. "No," said he, "if a soldier is worth anything, he can- 
not be spared from the field; and, if he is worthless, he will not 
make a good governor." Such was Crocker's exalted idea of 



438 iowa tsr war times. 

patriotism and of duty. Shortly he returned to the army and 
was made commander at Natchez, and in the following autumn 
he went with Sherman on his Meridian campaign. Ill health 
was gradually breaking-him down, so that by the spring of 1864, 
he accepted a command in New Mexico in the vain hope that 
the milder climate might restore him to health and useful- 
ness. Once more he started for the field of active duty, but his 
frail body was not equal to his courageous spirit. He went east 
to Washington City, and on the 26th of August, 1865, died at 
Willard's hotel. He was given a state funeral and all Iowa 
lamented the loss of so brave a soldier and so distinguished a 
citizen. 



Major General Frederick Steele was not an Iowa man, though 
for a short time colonel of an Iowa regiment, the Eighth. He 
was a captain of large experience in the regular army, had seen 
service in Mexico and had been promoted for personal gallantry 
at Chapultepec and Contreras. His company happened to be in 
Missouri when the war broke out, and it formed a part of the 
Regulars who did such gallant fighting at the side of the First 
Iowa at Wilson's Creek. His bravery on that occasion led the 
governor to give him command of an Iowa regiment, from which 
post he was soon promoted to be brigadier general, leaving the 
leadership of the Eighth Iowa to the accomplished and brave 
Col. Geddes. Gen. Steele was a meritorious commander and pro- 
motions and important posts followed rapidly. There was 
seldom a time when Iowa troops did not form a part of his com- 
mand. He led them at Chickasaw Bayou, at Arkansas Post, at 
Vicksburg, at Jackson, at Helena, at Jenkins' Perry, and at 
Mobile — and usually he led them to victory. He was a kind 
hearted and a humane officer, and the laurels he won as a general 
were earned by his military talents. 



Francis J. Herron was the youngest officer from Iowa to be 
made major general. Not only this, his company was the first 
Iowa command tendered by the governor to the secretary of 
war. This was Jan. 24th, 1861. Herron was a young Dubuque 




GENERAL FITZ HENRY WARREN. 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 439 

banker when the war trumpet sounded, and his " Governor's 
Greys" soon became company I, of the First Iowa infantry. He 
was one of the gallant captains at Wilson's Greek, where every 
man was brave, and bj r the following September Gov. Kirkwood 
made the boy captain lieutenant colonel of the Ninth infantry. 
At the splendid victory of Pea Ridge, Herron's gallantry again 
won deserved recognition, for he fought desperately in a hand to 
hand conflict, was wounded and taken prisoner. The battle made 
him a brigadier general. 

For the victory of Prairie Grove, one of the noted and hard 
won victories of the war, a victory his own, the government 
promptly made him major general of volunteers, and his advance- 
ment to important commands shortly followed. No one seemed 
to win promotion so rapidly, but the history of his battles shows 
the promotions to have been deserved. 



Brevet Major General Fitz Henry Warren was one of the 
ablest and most accomplished men of the state, when the war 
came on. He came west to Burlington, after a business career 
in Massachusetts, in the summer of 1844, and in 1849 President 
Taylor appointed him assistant Postmaster General. The excel- 
lent judgment with which he performed the important duties of 
his position attracted very general attention, and his name and 
character rapidly became a credit to the state. When Millard 
Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave law, Warren threw up his 
appointment and left the service of the administration. His 
refusal to be a party to a policy so inhuman and so liable to 
drift the country into eventual disaster, made Fitz Henry War- 
ren a popular man, and he was soon selected as one of the prom- 
inent managers in the campaign for Gen. Scott. In the cam- 
paign of 1860, also, he became prominent, and was one of the 
most eloquent supporters of Mr. Lincoln before the people. 
After the election, his former position in the cabinet as assistant 
Postmaster General was tendered him, but declined, he preferring 
to enter the military service of his country as a cavalry officer 
of volunteers. 

He was given the command of the First cavalry regiment of 



440 IOWA IK WAR TIMES. 

Iowa, and during the winter of 1862-3 campaigned in the state 
of Missouri under Gen. Curtis. In the early autumn of 1862, 
he had received the rank of a brigadier general. When the 
rebel general Marmaduke entered Missouri with 5,000 men, 
Warren divided his little army and sent half of it under Col. 
Merrill against him. This force fought the unequal battle of 
Hartsville and drove the rebel army in disgrace. Up and down 
the rebel state of Missouri, the cavalry of Warren rode by day 
and by night. There was almost never any rest from chasing 
guerrillas, clearing roads, holding outposts, protecting the flanks 
of the infantry and skirmishing with bands of the enemy who 
would suddenly swarm out of the mountains of Arkansas and, 
when pursued, as suddenly disappear. For man and for beast 
the hardships of such irregular yet constant campaigning were 
untold. Eighteen long hours at a time in the saddle, and almost 
without food, was not an uncommon occurrence. To-day here, 
to-morrow almost a hundred miles away — that was cavalry life 
in Missouri in those days; all the dangers, all the hardships of 
battle, and little of its glory. Constant skirmishing and rest- 
less pursuit of guerrillas, though of immense use to the army 
and to the country, made little fame. 

Once in the summer of 1863, Gen. Warren came home on 
leave of absence, and while here was a most popular candidate 
before the republican convention for the nomination for gov- 
ernor. But for his withdrawing his name at the most critical 
moment he might have succeeded. After one of the most grace- 
ful speeches ever made to a body of politicians, he retired from 
the convention with new friends and went back to his post in the 
arnry. That autumn he was sent to New Orleans, and thence to 
the command of the First division of the Thirteenth army corps 
operating in Texas. The following spring he was ordered 
to the command of the district of Baton Rouge, in Louisiana, 
where, it is said, his excellent administrative qualities, his good 
judgment and his radical loyalty accomplished much good, and 
corrected many abuses. The close of the war found him serving 
in New York city. 

Iu the early war days of 1861, Gen. Warren was an associate 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 441 

editor of the Neiv York Tribune, and as author of the " On to 
Richmond" letters, achieved national reputation. The letters 
proved him a vigorous writer, a loyal editor and a man of ideas. 
It is believed the excitement his letters created hurried the march 
toward Richmond and the Bull Run defeat. It cost Warren his 
position on the Tribune, and made a soldier of a man who, had 
Bull Run been a victory, would doubtless have remained one of 
the strongest, most versatile and useful writers and speakers of 
the war period. More, it would have called such attention to Gen. 
Warren's name as to have assured to him the high promotion 
his cultivated mind and unusual gifts would have warranted. 
" His speech was eloquent," said a life long friend, " his pen vigor- 
ous for the cause that he espoused, and his was the courage of a 
brave man in a grand purpose." 



Another noted Iowa officer of high rank was brevet Mai. Gen. 
John M. Corse, the hero of Allatoona. With the history of that 
battle alone, his fame would be secure. His gallantry, however, 
was not confined to that alone. At Chattanooga, in the storm- 
ing of Mission Ridge, in the famous reconnoissance of Jackson, 
and other bloody fields, Corse exhibited the qualities of a fear- 
less soldier and a bold leader. He was repeatedly wounded in 
battle, and for heroism on the field was repeatedly promoted. 
Every step in his brilliant career upward, from his post of major 
in the Sixth infantry, to the command of the division of a major 
general, was the result of hard fighting and soldierly ability. A 
braver man than Corse never led Iowa soldiers to battle. Since 
the war, he has lived first, in Chicago, as a man of important 
affairs, a collector of the port and a constructor of railways and 
public works. Later, he went to Boston to live, married there a 
niece of President Pierce, traveled for several years in Europe, 
and returning home was appointed postmaster of the city of his 
adoption. There were many others of the Iowa commanders, 
both colonels and generals, who, though lacking the opportu- 
nity to acquire national fame, were nevertheless distinguished 
men in Iowa and, as officers, popular with their soldiers and suc- 
cessful with their commands. At once, the reader recalls Gen. 



44:2 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

Vandever, the first colonel of the Ninth infantry, who with 
his regiment won such honors at Pea Ridge: Geddes, the Scotch- 
man, the bravest man at Shiloh, whose regiment more than any- 
other single command, stood between Grant's army and destruc- 
tion; Tuttle of Donelson, who with a single regiment stormed 
the works, did what whole brigades had failed to do, and won 
the first important victory of the war; Hatch, the brave cavalry 
rider who, entrusted with large commands, helped to keep Hood 
out of Tennessee, and whose daring men dismounted, marched 
into the battle of Nashville as infantry, stormed the rebel works 
and led the right wing of Thomas's army to certain victory; 
the brothers, Samuel A. and Elliott W. Rice, heroes of Jenkins' 
Ferry and of Belmont; Matthies of Iuka; Winslow, the daring 
rider, whose brigade saved the army at Guntown, and whose 
troopers never lost a battle; Bussey, Sherman's leader of cavalry 
at Vicksburg; Gilbert, the first officer to enter the rebel works 
at Fort de Russey; Stone, leading the first command into Co- 
lumbia; Hill, leading his last charge at Nashville, and Add. H. 
Sanders, one of the heroes of Corinth and Atlanta. He com- 
menced his soldier career as an aide on Gov. Kirk wood's staff, 
and as second colonel of the Sixteenth led that regiment in 
some of the fiercest conflicts of the war. At Atlanta, over- 
powered, captured, but fighting to the last, both colonel and 
regiment were taken to the horrible prison pens of the south. 
At Corinth, while rallying his regiment, Gen. Sanders received 
an almost mortal wound. Since the war, among other import- 
ant posts he has held, is that of acting governor of Montana 
territory. 

Then there are Coon and Benton and Clark, the gallant Hed- 
rick, and a dozen others — names cherished by their soldiers and 
their state. With them, troop into memory's line the names of 
gallant officers from almost every Iowa regiment, just as heroic 
and deserving, but whose shoulders never were graced with the 
insignia of high promotion. Often they led brigade commands, 
or, like Shaw and others, even commanded divisions. Their 
deeds are their histories, and are recorded in the pictures of the 
hard battles they helped to win. Their manhood, their heroism. 



SOME IOWA COMMANDERS. 



443 



their sacrifices, were known to the brave men whom they led 
into the conflict, and their best eulogy is that these men of the 
ranks loved and remembered them.* 



*LI3T OF IOWA GENERALS. 



Samuel R. Curtis. 
Frank J. Herrcm. 



MAJOR GENERALS. 



Frederick Steele. 
Grenville M. Dodge. 



BREVET MAJOR GENERALS. 



W. T. Clark. 
Cyrus Bussey. 
John M. Corse. 
Wm. W. Belknap. 
Wm. Vandever. 
H. H. Heath. 
Fitz Henry Warren. 



James M. Tuttle. 
Charles L. Matthies. 
Marcellus M. Crocker. 



James I. Gilbert. 
James A. Williamson. 
Jacob G. Lauman. 
Edward Hatch. 
W. L. Elliott. 
Elliott W. Rice. 



BRIGADIER GENERALS. 



Samuel A. Rice. 
John Edwards. 
Hugh T. Reid. 



S. G. Hill. 
Samuel L. Glasgow. 
Francis M. Drake. 
George A. Stone. 
W. W. Lowe. 
James L Geddes. 
John Bruce. 
D. B. Hillis. 
Alex. G. McQueen. 
Geo. M. O'Brien. 
John Pattee. 
George Pomutz. 
W. M. Stone. 
James B. Weaver. 
James Wilton. 
Harvey Graham. 
Alex. Chambers. 
Edward F. Winslow. 



BREVET BRIGADIER GENERALS. 

Thomas H. Benton. 
Clark R. Wever. 
Datus E. Coon. 
George W. Clark. 
J. M. Heddck. 
Matthew M.Trumbull. 
Addison H. Sanders. 
William McE. Dye. 
Joseph B. Leake. 
John M. Noble. 
James C. Parrott. 
R. F. Patterson. 
John H. Stibbs. 
Wm. Thompson. 
John Williams. 
Edward Wright. 
John 0. Hudnutt. 
Samuel M. Pollock. 



CHAPTER XXXI V. 

SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 

Probably no army in the world was ever organized with so 
many men of intelligence among the rank and file as the great 
army fighting for the Union. There were men carrying mus- 
kets who had the genius for commanding armies. There were 
men fit to be judges, sounding bugles for the infantry; there was 
the material for governors swinging the sabre of the private 
soldier in the cavalry. It was distinctively and especially an 
army of patriots, of men of intelligence — it was the army of 
the people of the Republic. 

That Iowa had its share of intelligence in the lower ranks, or 
in subordinate positions, is evidenced by the number of men 
who on leaving the army rose to preferment, to places of state 
distinction, gaining honorable repute. A few of them may be 
mentioned by name, not more to show that republics are not 
entirely ungrateful than to recall that the experiences of the 
army did not'unfit the Iowa soldier for the honorable duties of 
civil life. 

Harry O'Connor's name springs fresh to the page. He was a 
private in the ranks of the First Iowa at the battle of Wilson's 
creek, and his own graphic pen furnished one of the best descrip- 
tions ever given of the heroic fight. The war over, his own 
talents, his thrilling oratory, his legal attainments and his genial 
ways, hurried him to posts of honor. He became not only a 
popular attorney general for his own state, but later a trusted 
adviser of the department of state at Washington. Possibly no 
man in the country has a more thorough knowledge of inter- 
national law, or a better acquaintance with the relations of this 

country to foreign powers than private Harry O'Connor. 

(444) 



SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 445 

Buren R. Sherman, a lieutenant of the Thirteenth regiment, 
shot nearly to pieces at Shiloh, is another of the men rising 
almost out of the ranks to honor and position in Iowa. For 
honorable wounds received in battle he was discharged the 
service in 1863. He was the first president of the famous 
Crocker Brigade society, and became a member of the Loyal 
Legion of the United States. On returning home, the people 
made him first a county judge, then a clerk of courts, then an 
auditor of state and at last twice elected him governor of loyal 
Iowa. He was the twelfth incumbent of that high position, and 
performed its duties with patriotic courage. During his terms 
of office important questions of state were agitated, notably the 
law as to "prohibition," the public schools and the question of 
increased comforts to the inmates of the state's charitable insti- 
tutions. All of these measures he favored by speech, letter and 
official recommendation. He was the only state officer who had 
the courage to openly espouse by public addresses the cause of 
constitutional prohibition in the state. He had ever the highest 
ideas of official probity, and was in his public acts fearless in 
condemning wrong-doers, whether in private life or in public 
place. He left office with clean hands, a splendid record and an 
honored name. 

Another subordinate soldier who became a governor of Iowa 
was C. C. Carpenter, later a member of congress, and a man of 
high regard wherever known. He had been a commissary of 
subsistence on the staff of Gen. Logan, and on returning from 
the army was twice elected register of the state land office. In 
1871 he was made governor of the state. During his two terms 
as chief executive, he maintained the high character he had 
already won for official probity, uprightness and justice. Prob- 
ably no higher-minded man, no more unselfish officer, or purer 
politician ever filled Iowa's executive chair. He was the firm 
advocate of the people as against monopolies, and his arguments 
addressed themselves to all parties, looking only to the public 
good. He was an orator of repute and a chief executive who 
sought to do the right as he knew it. 

Col. Samuel Merrill was another of Iowa's wounded soldiers 



446 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

who attained to the governorship of the great state. He had led 
with Kinsman and been shot down in the celebrated charge 
at Black River Bridge. His wounds finally compelled him to 
leave the army. He entered upon his four years' service as gov- 
ernor in 1868, and his administration witnessed a degree of activ- 
ity in public affairs seldom surpassed in times of peace. Every 
movement for the public advantage received his earnest support. 
Chief among his earnest proposals were cheap transportation and 
slack water navigation between the great river and the lakes. 
Iowa was exporting 15,000,000 bushels of wheat per year then, 
and owing to dear freight it was worth but 50 cents a bushel 
at home. To cheapen freights, to make produce bring its proper 
value, was a worthy undertaking, and Gov. Merrill gave to the 
problem the full weight of his official power. Under his admin- 
istration was commenced the movement for Iowa's new and splen- 
did capitol building, one of the finest edifices in America. Gov. 
Merrill laid the corner stone and delivered an address replete 
with historic worth, and of burning patriotism. He was a noted 
philanthropist and a patron of learning. Among his gifts was 
that of $20,000 presented to Iowa College— an institution noted 
for its worth, and the patriotism of its founders, teachers and 
pupils, at a time when the state was in peril. 

The halls of congress at Washington have resounded with the 
voices of more than one Iowa soldier who had occupied but a 
subordinate position in the army. Sampson and Thompson 
and Weaver, Hepburn, Henderson, Lyman, Walden, Conger, 
Holmes and others — all were promoted not more on their politi- 
cal merits than on their soldier record. 

D. B. Henderson, as a lieutenant in the Twelfth, had a leg 
shot off at Corinth, and though young in years when the war 
closed, he was speedily selected for public place. He became one 
of the noted orators of a state rich in public speakers, and from 
his place in congress, as from every tribune in the state, he has, 
in words of burning eloquence, advocated the interests of his 
comrades in arms. By his brilliant abilities, he has attracted the 
attention of the whole country, and his name stands for elo- 
quence and patriotism. 



SOME SOLDIEK CIVILIANS. 447 

Another of the patriotic soldier orators of the state whose 
patriotism did not expire with the donning of civilians' clothes, 
is William Peters Hepburn, a noted member of congress from 
the Eighth district. Hepburn had been an officer in the Second 
Iowa cavalry, one of the best and bravest regiments of that arm 
of the service in the United States. It was noted for hard fight- 
ing everywhere, and its charge at Farmington, led by the brave 
Elliott, under a terrific storm of musketry and massed cannon, 
was as brave and as terrible as the charge of the English troop- 
ers at Balaklava. Hepburn was a daring officer and was given 
important posts both on the staff of Gen. Sheridan and of Gen. 
Rosecrans. January of 1863, found him on the staff of the 
latter, as inspector of the cavalry of the Cumberland and with 
the rank of lieutenant colonel. Later, at his own request, he 
was sent to his regiment, and in February of 1864, was placed 
in command of the Second brigade of the Sixteenth army corps. 
Hepburn, like Gov. Stone, had resigned a good position to enter 
the army; in fact he had been a man of much political exper- 
ience before the war commenced. His services done in the 
army, the people soon elected him again to position. He was 
three times chosen unanimously by his party as its representa- 
tive in congress, and while in that body proved himself one of the 
most able and courageous debaters of public issues in this country. 

Not less than five of the ex-soldiers, Scott, Campbell, New- 
bold, Walden and Hull, became lieutenant governors of the 
state. Some of these same lieutenant governors were also active 
in the legislative halls of Iowa and made names for themselves 
worthy of record. Walden served in congress with advantage 
to himself and state, and Campbell barely lost the honors of a 
seat in the lower house at Washington, by the success of Gen. 
J. B. Weaver, another soldier and a politician of great note 
throughout Iowa. Weaver had been a gallant officer of the 
Second regiment which was at one time under his command, and 
his political associates since the war have been proud of the 
career of their brilliant and successful leader. He has had the 
distinguished honor of being the nominee of his party for the 
presidency of the United States. 



448 IOWA IN" "WAR TIMES. 

Still another of Iowa's soldier representatives in congress is 
Joseph Lyman. He was a student in Iowa College when the 
war broke out, and one day unexpectedly rose in his class and 
announced his resolve to drop his books and seize a musket in 
defense of his country. He was first a private in the Fourth 
cavalry, and then an adjutant and major of the Twenty-ninth 
infantry, serving still later on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Steele. Out 
of the army he resumed his books and became a successful law- 
yer at Council Bluffs. In 1884, and without solicitation, he was 
appointed to a district judgeship, later elected to the same posi- 
tion by the people, and the same summer was chosen to the con- 
gress of the United States. While ably serving in his place at 
Washington, he was nominated by acclamation for a second 
term. He is one of the truest and best representatives of repub- 
lican government from a state that honors itself in honoring 
him. 

With Lyman, as an officer of Steele's staff, was John F. Lacey 
of Oskaloosa. He had entered the army as a private in the 
Third, was later an officer of the Thirty-third, and has honored 
the old commands by the distinguished position his talents have 
won him at the Iowa bar. Successful as a compiler of railroad 
laws and decisions, well known, and his services sought in the 
higher courts of the state, his abilities and industry have brought 
him fortune and position. 

It was a great change from leading a battery in battle to the 
supreme bench of the state of Iowa, but, in Judge Joseph R. 
Reed, if the artillery had a gallant commander, the state, later, has 
had an able and upright judge. He went out as a lieutenant in 
Dodge's battery, the Second, in the summer of 1861, was thirty- 
eight months a lieutenant, about eight months a captain, and 
commanded his battery in many of the hard conflicts of the 
war. Immediately on coming home from the army, his people 
sent him to the state senate. In 1869, he removed to Council 
Bluffs, and was in three years elected to a district judgeship, a 
post he had held by appointment. Several times re-elected to 
like positions, he was chosen for the supreme court of Iowa in 
1883. Judge Reed's promotions have been constant and 



SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 419 

deserved, ever since the days when his loyal little battery flung 
canister and grape into the Rebels' camp in the war times. 

Another of the soldiers on the supreme bench is James H. 
Rothrock, one of the oldest and most experienced judges, in 
fact, of the state. He had been an officer of the Thirty-fifth 
regiment, and immediately (fn the close of the war was elected 
a judge for the Eighth district, was twice re-elected, and during 
his third term in 1876, was chosen for the supreme bench, where 
for twelve years nearly he has served, bearing ever the high 
character of a good man and an upright judge. 

Of other soldiers who rose to judicial honors in the state, one 
readily recalls the names of E. S. Sampson of the Fifth, L. C. 
Blanchard of the Twenty-eighth, David Ryan of the Eighth, 
W. F. Conrad of the Twenty-fifth, Judge John Shane of the 
Thirteenth, the able and well known Judge Caldwell of Arkan- 
sas, who left the First Iowa cavalry to wear the ermine, and 
Judge Thompson, a private in the gallant Third regiment, who 
presides as one of the superior judges of the city of St. Louis. 
Along side of the grave soldier judges in supreme court is the 
Hon. Gilbert B. Pray, the chief clerk. He was one of the brav- 
est of Iowa's sons on the field of battle. As a mere boy he 
went as a private in the fighting Sixteenth regiment, and 
remained with it in all its marches, sieges and battles to the 
very end of the war. Home again, he studied law, became a 
most successful practitioner, and in 1882, and again in 1886, was 
chosen by the people to the most responsible position of clerk 
of the supreme court. He is reputed the most capable official 
that has ever filled that post. He is popular as an orator, appre- 
ciated as an accomplished officer, and liked as a man. 

In an educational way, some of the ex- soldiers have occu- 
pied the most honorable positions. State Superintendent Aber- 
nethy was a subordinate officer in the Ninth infantry and a 
hero at Pea Ridge. All through the war times, he was, with 
his command, on march and battle field. A few years after the 
war, he was three times in succession chosen to the highest 
educational post in Iowa, and when years afterward he retired 
I. W. T.— 29 



450 IOWA IN" WAE TIMES. 

from office, it was with an honorable record for efficiency and 
high manly character. 

Hon. John W. Akers was another of the soldier superinten- 
dents of instruction whose career was one of note and honor. 
Akers enlisted as a private in the noble Iowa Seventh, led by 
the gallant Col. Lauman. He shared the fortunes of that brave 
regiment clear through the war, and on coming home entered as 
a student at Cornell college at Mt. Vernon. Not favored by 
fortune, he made his own fortune, passing through college and 
soon gaining notice by his industry and abilities. He became 
superintendent of the city schools at Vinton, then at Waterloo, 
then at Cedar Rapids, and in 1880 he was elected to the high 
position of state Superintendent of Instruction. It has been said 
of him by common consent that he has given to that responsible 
office a prestige and a power which in all its past history it never 
possessed. For three successive terms the people returned him to 
his post. When declining the offer of a fourth election he left 
to his able successor the continuance of a work ably begun. He 
was the state's greatest advocate of free text books for the public 
schools, and in the near future, when that measure shall be 
adopted, it will be a monument in the state to his intelligence 
and heart. 

Other subordinate soldiers who reached state distinction were 
Capt. Lyons, the capable and genial auditor of state, a self-made 
man, a gallant soldier and a popular official; so, too, his prede- 
cessor, Auditor Brown, one of the one-armed heroes of the bat- 
tle field, and V. P. Twombly, treasurer of state, who as a color 
sergeant, carried the flag of the Second Iowa over the walls of 
Donelson in one of the celebrated charges of the war. He has 
lived to see that flag supreme and honored everywhere in all 
this land, and in times of piping peace to carry it again at the 
head of his regiment at "reunions," where, in story and song, 
are fought over again the fierce fights of Donelson and Shiloh. 
Still among the state's officers, too, is Ed Wright, ex-Speaker of 
the House, ex-Secretary of State, and one of the bravest men in 
battle of the Twenty-fourth infantry — a glorious, hard-fighting 







CAPTAIN V. P. TWOMBLY. 



SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 451 

regiment. Wright's name is known all over Iowa as that of a 
brave soldier, a successful officer, a faithful, genial man. 

Major Jefferson T. Anderson is another of the successful 
ex-soldiers who has acquired name and position among his fel- 
low men in Iowa. Talented, genial and eloquent, he has become 
a deservedly popular character in the state, and within six 
months has been the banner bearer of his party as a candidate 
for the governorship of Iowa. Capt. Merrell of Clinton, of the 
same party faith as Anderson, is another of the able and con- 
spicuous ex-soldiers who play prominent roles in the affairs of 
state, and P. Gad Bryan of the First cavalry, a name long since 
familiar all over Iowa. 

Warren S. Dungan's is another of the familiar soldier names 
known and respected throughout the state. His regiment, the 
Thirty-fourth, was one of the best drilled commands in the vol- 
unteer service. Dungan was one of the officers promoted for 
gallantry at Mobile, and his versatile talents, great energy and 
unswerving honor, have given him distinction and place. At 
his side in the senate is Lieut. H. C. Hemenway of Cedar Falls, 
risen to legal distinction and widely honored for his abilities 
and character. Then, too, Josiah T. Young of Albia, an 
ex-soldier of the Thirty-sixth, an able republican politician, 
ex-Secretary of State and a man greatly regarded for his honor 
and uprightness of life. 

Still in the public service, too, is W. L. Alexander, once a 
brave, hard fighting officer of the Thirtieth infantry and now 
since many years the able adjutant general of the state. His 
service in the army proved a great advantage to him in his civil 
post, and possibly the national guard of no state stands better 
trained and better equipped for war than the regiments of Iowa 
under the supervision of Gen. Alexander. " In time of peace 
prepare for war," has become a practiced maxim in Iowa, and 
were traitors to fly into rebellion again, they would be accorded 
a fiercer reception than was given at the start to the Rebels of 
1861. 

Some of the privates in the union army lead regiments in 
the national guard now, and some of them command brigades. 



452 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

H. H. Wright o£ Centerville long since dropped the musket and 
put on the stars of a brigadier; Gilchrist's chevrons have been 
succeeded by the uniform of a colonel, and Lieut. Byron A. 
Beeson, as a general, now leads one of the fine brigades of the 
National guard. 

Albert W. Swalm, the enthusiastic boy of but sixteen years, 
who, burning with patriotism, shouldered his musket and fought 
the long day through at Jenkins' Ferry as a private in the 
Thirty-third, standing in mud and water, firing his two hundred 
rounds of cartridges, has become a popular lieutenant colonel of 
the national guard. He is one of the zealous officers of the service, 
looking ever for the good of the command and the honor of the 
state. Since the war times, he has stepped out of the ranks into 
high position as a gifted and successful state journalist, and a 
politician of note and honorable influence. For many years his 
political insight has been recognized and his strong character 
felt in the moulding of important state affairs. Many of the 
ex-soldiers have met with noticeable success in the journalistic 
field. One recalls the name of Henry C. Leighton, the prede- 
cessor of Swalm, of the Oskaloosa Herald, a vigorous writer, a 
strong thinker, and, as chairman of the state central committee 
of his party, a powerful factor in Iowa politics. Other success- 
ful soldier editors are Hamilton, Aldrich, Evans and Langley. 
Richard P. Clarkson was a private in the old Twelfth regiment. 
He and his brother, Jas. S. Clarkson, became editors and con- 
trollers of the State Register, the most powerful journal west of 
the Mississippi river — a journal built up by superior talent, 
extraordinary business energy, immense pluck and great politi- 
cal foresight. No other single factor in Iowa, not in all its his- 
tory, has exercised such influence and power in the great affairs 
of the state as the Register. Its course has, in itself, become 
a part of the state's history. 

In business circles, one recalls names like private Thomas J. 
Potter of the Seventh Iowa cavalry, who after years of success- 
ful railway management was promoted to the control of the 
Union Pacific, one of the great railroads of the world. D. W. 
Haydock, a subordinate officer of the Thirty-third infantry, is 



SOME SOLDIER CIVILIANS. 453 

another of the soldiers noticeably successful in business. In the 
city of St. Louis he owns and manages one of the largest car- 
riage manufactories of any country. His success has been 
achieved not more by business foresight than by extreme 
uprightness of character. Still another of the Thirty-third 
soldiers successful in St. Louis, is C. H. Sharman, the compe- 
tent manager of a southern railroad. The list of subordinate 
Iowa soldiers succeeding since the war in politics, business, or in 
professions, might be multiplied by the hundred. Speakers 
Head, and Redman, and Stone, and business men like Maj. 
Perkins of Burlington, Representative Scott of Cedar, J. Q. A. 
Campbell of the old Fifth, journalist, and his comrade, Corporal 
Herron, the retired banker, only swell an honorable list that 
shows how in Iowa the material that helped make up the union 
army was composed of young men of talent and energy, and 
that the sentiment of the motto on the Soldiers' Home is a 
sentiment of true feeling: 



"IOWA FORGETS NOT THE DEFENDERS OF THE 
UNION," 



CHAPTER XXXY. 

CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 

Iowa had two armies serving the nation — the great column, 
78,000 strong, of boys in blue at the front, and that other army 
of men and women who furnished the muscles of war here at 
home — that army of brave and loyal hearts who sent their sons to 
the field and sacrificed of their scanty means, for young Iowa was 
not rich then; who gave of their fields, and of their time, and of the 
toil of their hands and the hope of their lives to save the nation in 
its peril. Armies would not have been possible but for that intense 
force; that patriotic impulse of the men and women of the state at 
home; that loyalty that placed all at the altar of the countrj'. Na- 
tions are not saved by muskets alone, but by the great, strong 
hearts that beat in one impulse, and whose sacrifices are not in the 
smoke of the battle, but in the loyal duty that lies nearest, and 
without visible reward. 

Such hearts are the hope of the Republic. When the peril came, 
Iowa, to her honor, had them in abundance. The state's record 
for loyalty was made as much by these men and women as it was 
by the heroism of its soldiers. The man who patiently followed 
his plow and gladly gave the yield of his harvest to his country, 
was as much a patriot as the soldier who carried the musket. 
The woman who mounted the reaper while she wept for her 
husband and sons in the battle, was a patriot whose sacrifice was 
sublime. In a thousand ways the people of Iowa sustained the 
soldiers in the field, strengthened their hearts, fired their courage 
and helped them win their battles. 

This was almost the first reason why Iowa soldiers won so 
much glory in battle — the patriotism and the sacrifice of the 
people at home. This army of men and women did not shine on 

(454) 



- CITIZEN" PATKIOTS. 455 

the bulletins of victory, they received no promotions, no brevets, 
wore no stars on their shoulders, received no pensions. No can- 
non were fired in their honor, no strains of music welcomed 
them to fame. Only duty called them, and they heard. Few 
remember now how much these patriots did. The army and the 
brigadiers had the glory — only honest patriotism recalls some- 
times the names of these true men and women. Their names 
and their deeds would fill a volume. 

Every town and village had its company of this true army of 
patriots. A chapter will not permit recalling a hundredth part 
of the names or the deeds of women like Anna Wittenmeyer who 
organized, controlled and led at home and in the field the great 
sanitary measures of the state for the aid and relief of soldiers. 
Her constant devotion, her energy, her patriotism that carried 
help and balm to ten thousand bleeding hearts will not be for- 
gotten so long as an Iowa soldier breathes; nor that of the little 
army of men and women who helped her in all her aims. With 
her were closely connected names like those of Mrs. Senator 
Grimes, as patriotic as her distinguished husband; a woman noble 
in all the fairest attributes of life; a woman of position, of wealth 
and ease, devoting her time to making bandages for soldiers, and 
in the daily relief corps meetings and aid societies working and 
helping the widows and the orphans made by the battle field. 
At her side was Mrs. Salter of Burlington, wife of the patriot 
minister whose distinguished abilities and eloquent voice sounded 
in all the length and breadth of Iowa the one intense strain of 
perfect loyalty. Like other preachers of the state, he saw no 
religion where there was no loyal faith. He preached the rights 
of man black or white, and, to him, the soldier fighting at the 
front for his country was as faithful as the crusader struggling 
for possession of the Sepulchre. 

There, too, was Mrs. James Harlan, a senator's wife, leaving 
the peace and luxury of position and home, to carry medicine 
and bandages to the soldiers in the army hospitals. It has been 
said of Mrs. Harlan that she was in fact the very first woman in 
high position in this country to go among the sick and wounded 
soldiers at the front. Like an angel of pity she came to the 



45G IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

tents of the suffering and brought aid and comfort. Her high 
position soon led other noble women to follow her, until there 
was a Florence Nightingale from every state and from almost 
every district in the Union. Mrs. Harlan not only gave all of 
her surplus means to help the soldiers — she sacrificed her own 
health in devotion to the cause. 

Another of these noble women was Mrs. Joseph T. Fales, wife 
of Iowa's patriotic state auditor at the time. Like Mrs. Harlan, 
she was one of the very first women to visit the army hospitals. 
Mrs. Fuller, whose husband was chaplain of the First infantry 
regiment, went with him to the field and was the first official 
army nurse appointed from the state. 

Among the women who undertook the hardships of nursing 
soldiers at the front, none were nobler, more devoted or more 
self-sacrificing than Mrs. Col. Simmons of Clinton. " It is a 
satisfaction to know, 1 ' writes Gen. Baker in an official letter to 
her, " that in heroism and self-abnegation, the lofty spirit that 
inspired the matrons of '76, is emulated by the women of our 
own day. Many a soldier, stretched on a cot of suffering, has 
been solaced and his pains alleviated by the tender ministrations 
of noble women who, like yourself, have given up the comforts 
of home to smoothe the pillow and cool the burning brow of our 
brave soldiers." " Aunt Becky" Young was another of the 
noble women who gained reputation and the love of the soldiers 
as a devoted self-sacrificing army nurse throughout the entire 
war. She is still one of the noticeable figures at army reunions, 
where the boys in blue testify their love for her loyal devotion 
in many pleasant ways. 

Every Iowa town, in the army days, had its Soldiers 1 Aid 
society, or later its local branch of the state sanitary commis- 
sion, and the value and blessed use of the sanitary and hospital 
supplies sent to the front by them was almost beyond computa- 
tation. Thousands of brave Iowa men were saved from unknown 
graves by the comforts and aids furnished by these hardwork- 
ing, patriotic men and women.* The poorest women in the 

*At the organization of the Iowa Sanitary Commission at Des Moines, 
November 18, 1863, the following patriots appeared in active roles: Mrs. 
Gen. Curtis, Mr. F. E. Bissell of Dubuque, Judge Baldwin, Mrs. Judge 




HON. J! B. GRINNELL. 



CITIZEN PATKIOTS. 457 

town and the richest worked side by side in the aid societies 
making garments for the sick, bandages for the wounded, and 
extra comforts for the well. The poorest woman gave of her mite 
alongside of the contributions of the rich, and an approving 
God smiled on them both and blessed their gifts. The deeds of 
these legions of noble women, giving of all they had in labor, 
money and love, like the deeds of many of Iowa's heroic soldiers, 
are recorded only in heaven. 

At the time of the convention in Des Moines, the patriots of 
the state from farm and town had already given a quarter of a mil- 
lion dollars to aid the soldiers. A few months later, June, 1864, 
the great sanitary fair of Northern Iowa was held at Dubuque, and 
money and goods contributed to the amount of $86,000: Con- 
sidering the small population of that part of Iowa, it was pro- 
nounced the most successful sanitary fair ever held in this coun- 
try. To the loyal men and women who took part in it, it was a 
time never to be forgotten. Patriotism glowed at its whitest 
heat. Nothing else than the fair was talked of while it contin- 
ued. Every loyal man and woman in Dubuque and in that part 
of Iowa, surrendered of time, money and goods to make the 
undertaking a success, and the great fair became a mile-stone in 
the history of the city. H. A. Wiltse was its president, and 
among its active officers or greatest helpers were F. E. Bissell, 

Glrev, Senator Harlan, Rev. Truesdale, Miss Knowles of Keokuk, Mrs. Col. 
McFarland of Mt. Pleasant, Rev. Norris of Dubuque (traveling agent), Mrs. 
N. H. Brainerd, Mrs. Anna Wittenmeyer and Mary E. Shelton. Senator 
Harlan was president of this convention, composed of both men and 
women from every section of Iowa. Among 1 those who had brought about 
this organization were loyal people who had for two years been active in the 
good work in local soldiers' aid societies. Noticeable were the names of 
good Dr. Magoun, then of Lyons, who became the recording secretary of the 
society; Rev. A. J. Kynett, who started the idea of a state sanitary commis- 
sion, and induced the governor to appoint the first board, becoming its cor- 
responding secretary; Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Edwards of Mt. Pleasant; Mrs. 
Darwin of Burlington; Rev. James Knox, Mrs. Givin, Mrs. Leonard and 
Mrs. Knox of Clinton; Mrs. Ely and Mrs. P. Humphries of Cedar Rapids; 
Rev. J. E. Ennis of Lyons; Rev. Truesdell, Mrs. Simmons and Dr. A. S. 
Maxwell of Davenport; Rev. E. S. Morris and N. H. Brainerd of Iowa City; 
Mrs. James F. Wdson of Fairfield; Miss Mary A. Mathews of Knoxville; 
Mrs. C. C. Nourse of Des Moines; Miss Knowles of Keokuk; Mrs. W. H. 
Simpson of Muscatine; Mrs. Gov. Stone, Mrs. J. B. Grinnell and Mrs. Col. 
Mills of Des Moines. They were allied with the officers of all the aid socie- 
ties in the state, in every town and village. A whole volume would not con- 
tain even the names of these doers of good. 



458 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Mrs. Davis, Geo. L. Mathews, Austin Adams, D. K. Cornwell, 
Mrs. J. M. Robinson, Mrs. J. Clement, Mrs. D. N. Cooley, Mrs. 
D. S. Cumings, Mrs. Markell, Mrs. Stout, Mrs. Booth, Mrs. 
Vandever and Mrs. Langworthy; 0. P. Shiras, J. K. Graves, 
H. W. Sanford, R. Bonson, J. T. Hancock, Wm. Westphal, 
William Larrabee and William B. Allison. Gifts were handed in 
by all classes of people, from one dollar up to a hundred. Mrs. 
Booth and Miss Bissell collected a thousand dollars in a single 
day. The fair was simply a culmination of the patriotic desire 
of the people at home to help the soldiers. 

Conspicuous among the patriotic men of that day was the elo- 
quent Rev. George F. Magoun, then preaching at Lyons, but 
called later to the presidency of Iowa College. He was active 
as a patriot in the sanitary corps and in all movements for the 
aid and comfort of Iowa soldiers. His speeches and sermons 
were numerous, and burning with patriotic eloquence. He was 
one of those whose inspiring words largely helped to mould the 
loyal patriotic feeling of the state. 

The Hon. J. B. Grinnell, of the town named for him, and a 
prominent member of congress, was another of the extremely 
popular state patriots whose hand and heart went together in 
every loyal movement in the state. He had been one of the men 
who helped to build the proud, young state, and to keep its insti- 
tutions free as the air of its prairies. There was almost no 
public movement for the advancement of Iowa in which J. B. 
Grinnell did not play a noble, loyal and patriotic part. His 
name was linked with everything that made the state better or 
lifted it up to an honorable position among its sister states of 
the republic. His name w r as not hemmed in by state lines — it 
was national. He was known as a philanthropist, an educator 
— as an Abolitionist, when it cost a struggle to be an Abolition- 
ist, as a forcible writer, as a politician and as a war patriot whose 
zeal knew no bounds. He was the friend of John Brown, and 
of Wendell Phillips, and none in Iowa knew better than he, or 
watched closer, the storm cloud brewing in the years before 
the war. When that war came, his hand, his purse and his heart 
were open to the union soldiers. The cause of the common 



CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 459 

country had no better friend— the slave struggling for liberty, 
no truer defender. He lived to see his principles, once defamed, 
succeed, and knew that the loyal zeal of himself and the faithful 
Abolitionists and philanthropists who labored with him had 
borne noble fruit. 

Judge Samuel F. Miller of Keokuk was also one of the prom- 
inent and faithful patriots in Iowa in the times of her doubt and 
peril. He was the aid and stimulus of his accomplished partner, 
Rankin, and like him was extremely loyal to the national cause. 
He was a Kentuckian by birth, but knew no lines that did not 
loyally include the Republic of the fathers. He was appointed 
to the supreme court of the United States early in the war days, 
and for twenty years has been the leading mind of that high 
tribunal. His address in Philadelphia in 1887, at the Centen- 
nial of the Constitution, has been pronounced a masterpiece of 
originality, a bold, broad platform, worthy of the founders of 
the Republic itself. His attainments and his trained intellect 
have brought national honor to him and reflect repute on the 
state that claims him as her citizen. 

Of an entirely different mould, but like Miller, of national 
repute, and of unqualified patriotism, was John A. Kasson. An 
eloquent speaker, an original thinking statesman, and a born 
diplomat, he was of the mettle that insures political success. He 
was a party leader in Iowa, serving as the extraordinarily com- 
petent chairman of the republican state central committee. As 
a delegate to the national convention that nominated Abraham 
Lincoln for the presidency, he was entrusted with the drafting 
of the memorable platform on which Mr. Lincoln was elected; 
a platform that, to Mr. Kasson's honor, became the declaration 
of principles of a party whose influences for the rights of man 
have been more far reaching than the influences of any other 
party in the history of the republic. Mr. Kasson's abilities 
soon secured him the important position of assistant postmaster 
general,— a post which is in fact the political post of the depart- 
ment. In 1862, he was elected to congress from Des Moines, 
where he speedily became a potent member of his party and an 
acknowledged leader in great measures. His star of political for- 



460 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

tune followed him and he has been the chosen representative of 
his country at some of the most brilliant courts of Europe. 
During his active service in congress the soldiers of this country 
had in John A. Kasson a sincere and able supporter. 

Judge John F. Dillon was another of the more prominent 
Iowa patriots in the war times. He was and is one of the most 
remarkable men in the state. He was of the powerful law firm 
of Cook and Dillon of Davenport; was twice chosen judge of 
the district court, was Chief Justice in Iowa and was later ele- 
vated to a federal judgeship. He was called to Columbia Col- 
lege as professor of law, and later resigned and became the chief 
counselor and legal adviser of Jay Gould, the millionaire. Com- 
mencing life as an orphan boy in Davenport, by his own abili- 
ties and tireless zeal he has risen to one of the most lucrative 
positions in the United States. 

William Penn Clark was well known as among the strong 
supporters of the union cause in Iowa. He was a dashing and 
successful lawyer— was a member of the constitutional conven- 
tion of 1856, and a genuine John Brown Abolitionist. He was 
a man of high culture, fond of the fine arts, and liberally 
indulged his cultured tastes. For many years this zealous pat- 
riot has lived a life of ease in Washington City. 

Lt.-Gov. John R. Needham of Oskaloosa, the quiet gentleman, 
the noble man, stood high among the Union's zealous friends in 
Iowa. As editor, writer, legislator, he had but one voice — the 
voice of true loyalty. His patriotism, like his honor, was spot- 
less. He did not think of a dissolution of the Union as imprac- 
ticable merely, he believed it impossible. The very thought of 
disunion, to his mind, was a crime. 

Another prominent and extremely patriotic lieutenant gover- 
nor, was Enoch W. Eastman. Born a Democrat in New Hamp- 
shire, bred a Democrat, in his own graphic words, he " should- 
ered his axe and marched out of the Democratic party. 1 ' He 
was one of the truest of men in council, one of the boldest in 
speech and action. Hon. C. F. Clarkson, too, later a state sen- 
ator, was one of the best and bravest patriots of the great army 
in Iowa that was sustaining and upholding the soldiers at the 



CITIZEN PATKIOTS. 4'6l 

front. He was eminently patriotic and active in encouraging 
enlistments, and aiding in securing sanitary supplies for our 
wounded soldiers. 

Hon. Lyman Cook, W. F. Coolbaugh, Senator Foote, C. 
Hedges and Hon. E. D. Rand, all of Burlington, were among 
the patriots there — patriots who shrunk from no sacrifice of 
time, money and active influence that could help save the Union 
or be of benefit to our soldiers in the field. Burlington also 
had the Hon. John H. Gear, a wealthy merchant, who was 
extremely liberal of means and active in all loyal measures for 
Iowa's good. Later, the people of the state rewarded him by 
making him speaker of the house, and later, governor — a posi- 
tion he filled with great ability and honor. Later still, his dis- 
trict sent him to congress as a representative of a section of 
Iowa that had in every sense been extremely patriotic in the 
war times. There, too, was Mr. Robert Donahue, and his part- 
ner, Mr. Thompson McCosh, who patriotically gave a marble 
monument to the township of Des Moines county (outside of 
Burlington) that should raise the most supplies for the relief of 
soldiers. Yellow Springs township got the monument, one of 
the first soldiers' monuments built in the country, and on its 
sides are carved the names of 73 soldiers of that township who 
died for their country. 

Another of Iowa's distinguished war-time patriots was the 
Hon. William Larrabee, one of the most trusted and earnest men 
in his part of the state. He was loyal and true in every impulse 
of his nature, and hesitated at no sacrifice that should help pre- 
serve the government and the bright honor of the state. It 
was his wish to enter the army and go to the front. With this 
in view he organized a company of volunteers, but owing to 
defective sight he failed to be accepted by the mustering officer. 
With straightforward common sense, patriotism and ability, he 
did earnestly whatever loyal duty lay before him, and years after- 
ward the people, recognizing his sterling worth, his long expe- 
rience as a state senator, his untiring zeal, his uprightness and 
his ability for great affairs, gave him the first honors of the state. 
Since elected governor, he has proven the wisdom of the people 



462 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

in their selection. The same loyal feeling that led him to be a 
great giver, an active patriot and a soldiers 1 friend in the war 
times, still animates him in all his public acts. The soldiers 
have no better friend than their governor. His administration 
has witnessed the revival and rapid growth of the society of the 
Grand Army of the Republic in Iowa, valuable legislation in the 
interests of soldiers 1 families, and the establishment, by the state, 
of the u Soldiers' Home, 11 one of the proudest monuments to 
Iowa's honor and a proof that in fact and deed, the state will 
not forget its defenders. 

Jasper county gave to the list of men noticeable for patriot- 
ism the names of honest, good Judge Edmundson, patriotic Har- 
vey Skiff, E. N. Gates, William Vaughn, the active and zealous 
Horace S. Winslow, later an able and conscientious judge, and 
Stephen B. Shellady, the astute politician, once speaker of the 
house and in many senses one of the noble men of the state. 
There, too, were patriotic Caleb Lamb, John Meyer and Senator 
S. G. Smith, all zealous and faithful patriots, active in the cause 
Iowa had so much at heart. 

In Linn county, Dr. J. F. Ely and his patriotic wife, Mrs. Ely, 
were first in all good works for soldiers. So, too, Mr. and Mrs. 
C. S. Stevens, Maj. Thompson and Banker Weare. Time nor 
labor nor money were considered by these people when a good 
deed for the soldiers was waiting to be done. Prominent there, 
too, was Judge Hubbard, who with speech and deed aided his 
country in its perilous time, or labored for the interests of its 
defenders. 

Muscatine possessed in Hon. Jacob Butler, once speaker of the 
house, one of the brightest, most eloquent and most active citi- 
zens of the state. Faithful in his loyalty, true to his stated 
honor, he exerted his unusual talents for the public good. He 
was reckoned one of the most efficient organizers of the state. 
There, too, was the Hon. John A. Parvin, honored all over Iowa, 
a member of the constitutional convention, a patriot, and a 
noble man and senator. So, too, Chester Weed, the enterprising 
man of affairs, the loyal, pushing citizen; and Suel Foster, the 
noted horticulturist. The last four are dead, but the state will 



CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 463 

long remember how like a valiant guard they stood, always fight- 
ing for its honor, knowing no right and no left, as they walked 
the straight, loyal path of patriotic faith. 

Muscatine had also men and women like Dr. J. S. Horton, D. 
C. Oloud, Mrs. Horton, Rev. A. B. Robbins, Hon. R. M. Burnett, 
Hon. John Mahin, Mrs. Washburne, Mrs. Hubbard and Mrs. 
Madden, all of whom devoted time and money to the cause all 
had at heart. One of Muscatine's expedients to raise money for 
the soldiers was the cultivation of a great field of potatoes by 
the ladies and gentlemen of the town. The land was 
donated by a loyal farmer, and side by side the lawyers, 
store keepers, editors, doctors and ladies toiled, turning the prod- 
ucts of the field over to the sanitary commission. 

Marshalltown had many active, patriot citizens, notably men 
like G. M. Woodbury, whose whole heart was with the soldiers 
in the field, and whose generous purse opened at every call for 
aid; Thos. B. Abel, and Hon. J. L. Williams, too, were promi- 
nent among the patriots of the district. With them, to be reck- 
oned foremost in every movement for the prosecution of the 
war, was Deloss Arnold, a state senator of high reputation and a 
most active patriot. 

Clinton county, generous as its soldiers were brave, did mar- 
vels for the support of the families of the men at the front. Its 
loyal board of supervisors gave out not less than $75,000 in boun- 
ties, and many men, noted among them Rev. A. J. Kynett, Wm. 
Familton and R. J. Crouch of De Witt, spent almost their whole 
time and energy in aid of the sanitary commissions. Laboring 
at their sides were the greater number of the good men and 
women of the county, bent only on patriotic endeavor. 

Mahaska had its scores of men and women, patriots who, during 
the war times, almost gave up all things else for the advantage 
of the soldiers. Not many were rich, but of what they possessed, 
the} 7 gave to their country in abundance. The list included names 
like John White, the ardent Democrat but true patriot, W. T. Dart 
and Mrs. Dart, Judge Loughridge, Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Street, 
Dr. D. 'k. Hoffman, who doctored the soldiers free of charge, 
and J. M. Byers, whose home was a veritable free boarding 



464 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

house for boys in blue, and whose time was spent, without com- 
pensation, in raising recruits and helping men off to the war. 
Charles Beardsley, John R. Needham, W. T. Smith, "Uncle Ben" 
Roop, M. L. Jackson and scores of others gave constantly of 
time and money to the good cause. Mahaska's sons went to 
the war in many regiments, and their fathers and mothers 
at home gave of their goods, of their time, of their harvests. 
With their giving they had one constant prayer for the pres- 
ervation of their common country. The proudest history of 
the county is its recollection of its supreme loyalty and devo- 
tion to the common cause. 

What Oskaloosa did, that did many other towns. Mt Pleas- 
ant, Iowa City, Council Bluffs and Davenport were all rivals in 
giving help, as they had been in giving men, to preserve the 
Union. Notable among them all were Judge Caleb Baldwin 
and H. C. Nutt of Council Bluffs, Mr. and Mrs. N. H. Brainerd, 
and Rush Clark, Ezekiel Clark, and Mrs. Edith McConnell of 
Iowa City, and the Amana Society of Iowa county. These 
people were all patriots who found their pleasure and their duty 
in aiding the cause of the soldiers. There, too, at their sides 
were Rev. J. A. Reed, and Hiram Price, the brilliant member of 
congress and treasurer of sanitary commission, from Davenport; 
Rev. J. H. Merritt of McGregor, Judge George Green of Cedar 
Rapids, Clark of Mount Pleasant, Hon. S. T. Caldwell of 
Eddyville, Jacob Rich of Dubuque, Seth Richards of Benton- 
ville, Banker Hanby of Ottumwa, Mrs. Joseph E. Horner of 
Knoxville, Hon. E. S. Williams of Clayton county, Dr. Geo. 
Shedd of Denmark, and the famous Rev. Asa Turner of the 
same place, whose voice and deeds were known all over Iowa. 
Scarcely less known was S. P. Adams, the brilliant orator, the 
zealous patriot of Davenport, who, with Judge Burt and Judge 
Cooley, kept the fires of patriotism burning wherever their voices 
were heard in the state. 

Knoxville had its most prominent loyalist in Provost Mathews, 
whose name, like Marshal Hoxie's, became a terror to Copper- 
heads and rebel sympathizers. Ed. Manning of Keosauqua was 
not only a patriot, aiding the soldiers at home; he was the first 



CITIZEN PATKIOTS. 465 

man in the state of Iowa to have sufficient confidence in the 
general government to buy its war bonds and trust its ability to 
put down treason and pay its debts. Maj. North, the governor's 
secretary, was another of Iowa's true men and best patriots in 
her hour of peril, and Rush Clark of Iowa City, a speaker of 
the house, and true in every way; and Norris of the Ottumwa 
Courier, whose loyalty was as warm as his paper was strong. 
Last mentioned, but not least in patriotic ardor, was the Rev. 
P. P. Ingalls, to whose constant zeal and patient, patriotic labors 
is due the Home for the Soldiers' Orphans. Such men and such 
women were of the salt of the earth. 

Sioux City, though having its hands full with the Indian 
troubles on the borders, was nevertheless loyal enough to fur- 
nish men and means and patriotic words for the suppression of 
rebellion in the South. Prominent among many of her citizen 
patriots were Judge Pendleton, N. C.Hudson, S. T. Davis, Wm. 
H. Biglow, Wm. L. Joy and the ever active and zealous patriot, 
Wm. R. Smith. Judge A. W. Hubbard, one of the city's fore- 
most patriots, had a name wide as his state. He was a man of 
note in many ways, of great abilities, firm loyalty, and trusted 
in high places. Gov. Kirkwood believed him to be one of the 
most unselfish, patriotic, able and worthy public men in the 
service of the state of Iowa. 

Polk county gave of money as it gave of men, and many of 
its patriots were of repute in all Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. James 
Callanan gave of their abundance in all directions, assumed the 
total support of various soldiers' families, and by word and deed 
set a noble example of patriotism that found rivals in every direc- 
tion in the capital city. There were the patriotic Mr. and Mrs. 
Savery, the Mills families, the Palmers and a hundred others 
leading in society at the capital, engaged in organizing meth- 
ods to help the Iowa soldiers or the cause for which they were 
fighting. Men of high political position like the Hon. Geo. G. 
Wright, Chief Justice, and senator of the United States, and Hon. 
C. C. Cole, also a supreme judge later, brought all their influence 
and power to bear in ways that made their names familiar to 
patriots in Iowa. Hon. Jonathan Cattell, too, Mrs. Cattell, 
I. W. T.— 30 



466 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

John N. Dewey, Stewart Goodrell and Thomas Mitchell were 
prominent in everything pertaining to the soldiers' or the coun- 
try's interests. It would require a volume to even mention the 
names of the men and the women of the capital and of the 
state at large who labored for the cause of the Union all through 
the weary days of the war. Rich and poor alike, high and low, 
wherever there was a truly loyal man or woman in Iowa, that 
man and woman placed the soldiers' interests before all other 
interests, and handed down to their children the proud record of 
true patriotism. 

The most powerful influence of all, working at home, was the 
loyal newspaper press. An acknowledged power always, it 
became especially so when the bright honor of the state was in 
peril and the life of the republic threatened. There is simply 
no estimating the good the leading Iowa journals did in the war 
times. It was an exceedingly loyal class of men who controlled 
them — loyal and able. First, and most influential of all the 
Iowa journals then, was the Burlington Hawkeye. Clark Dun- 
ham, its editor, represented in his fiery editorials the most 
advanced and patriotic sentiment of the state. In his eyes, 
traitors and their sympathizers were odious, and every day of 
the war saw from his pen burning philippics against Rebels and 
rousing, cheering huzzahs for the union soldiers. The columns 
of the paper glowed at a fever heat of patriotism from the 
firing on Sumter till the abolishment of slavery and the anni- 
hilation of the rebel armies. Dunham believed from the very 
beginning that slavery would and ought to be destroyed, and 
that the union flag would be victorious. 

There, too, was the Des Moines Register, later grown into one 
of the most powerful journals in the Northwest. Already in 
the war times, with Teesdale at its head, it gave signs of its 
coming greatness. Patriotic, vigilant, and true to every prin- 
ciple for which the Iowa soldiers were fighting, it never took 
one step backward. Its position at the capital made it a power, 
and the ability and patriotism of many of its writers made it 
respected in the state. The Marshalltown Times was another of 




H^ 




CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 467 

the able supporters of the union cause— its editor, Chapin, a 
strong, dashing and patriotic writer. 

The Gate City had at its head the Hon. J. B. Howell, an able, 
patriotic writer, later a senator of the United States, while the 
assistant editor was Samuel Clark, one of the most vigorous 
thinkers and the best editorial writers of the whole West. 
Extreme loyalty was the watchword of the two strong editors, 
and the paper's editorials blazed like a beacon light of loyalty to 
all the patriotic people of the south part of the state. The 
Davenport Gazette was another of the exceedingly strong, active 
journals of the day, its editor and founder, Sanders, being 
second to no man in Iowa for his devotion to the Union, or for 
his ability to guide an important journal in a perilous time. 
Ed. Russell was another of the unusually strong writers on the 
press whose ability and patriotism went far to mould the public 
sentiment of the state. So, too, Frank Palmer, then of Du- 
buque, and later editor of the Des Moines Register, whose ready 
pen and splendid abilities were seconded by a patriotic impulse 
that knew no limit. His later career, as member of congress, 
as manager of great newspaper interests in Chicago, and as sup- 
porter and friend of the great Logan, was honorable in the 
extreme. He laid the foundation of his reputation as editor of 
the Register. 

John Mahin of the Muscatine Journal was another of the 
forcible writers and important factors of that day, and his Jour- 
nal, like the Nonpareil at Council Bluffs, was among the very 
foremost, and most active in upholding the hands of state and 
nation, and in warm devotion to the interests of the soldiers in 
the field. 

L. D. Ingersoll's was a name known in all Iowa as that of 
one of the very first writers in the state. Possessed of an active 
and brilliant mind, an extremely ready pen and a patriotic heart, 
he dashed off editorials and letters that commanded attention 
wherever read in Iowa. His book on Iowa in the Rebellion, 
written before the cannon were cold on the battle field, was a 
graphic and successful account of the doings of Iowa regiments, 
and as complete and full as the time of its appearance and the 



468 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

want of complete records would allow. There, too, were the patri- 
otic and able writer, Z. Streetor of Cedar Falls, and Peter Mel- 
endy, whose ability and patriotism were recognized all over the 
state; Wm. H. Sessions, the perfect embodiment of loyalty, ever 
active and foremost in all loyal things, and Brainerd of Iowa 
City — fine, bold writers, all of them, and of extreme influence. 
Brainerd was also the accomplished secretary of the War Gov- 
ernor, and imbibed of the patriotism of his great chief. 

Booth of the Anamosa Eureka had no superior in Iowa for 
loyal activity and efficient, wide-awake ability. He led, more 
than he followed, public sentiment, and w T as a strong support 
to the administration of state affairs. The Fairfield Ledger, 
under the loyal J. F. Junkin, was also for the people of its dis- 
trict ever a true beacon light, and a patriotic leader of public 
opinion. G. W. Edwards of the Mt. Pleasant Journal was 
another of the noted loyal editors whose faithful patriotism and 
constant activity encouraged the Iowa people to march straight 
forward to the end of the Rebellion in the loyal path they had 
entered on. His was about the best weekly newspaper in the 
state, and its influence was very great. Another of the promi- 
nent weeklies was the Oskaloosa Herald, edited by Hon. Charles 
Beardsley, a true patriot, an honorable man, and a pure politi- 
cian. From a period previous to the war till the spring of 1865 
the Herald was in his charge, and every issue of it was marked 
with the earnest, patriotic writing that not only encouraged the 
soldiers at the front, but their co-workers, the loyal men and 
women of Iowa at home. Just before the close of the war, 
Beardsley assumed editorial control of the Burlington Hawkey e. 
He was a worthy successor to the earnest and patriotic Dunham. 
For nine years he led that able journal, a part of the time serv- 
ing the state in the Iowa senate. His tastes led him to the study 
of national politics, especially the question of finance. His able 
discussion with pen and voice made him an authority in the 
state, and later led to his appointment to the position of fourth 
auditor of the United States treasury. On his retirement from 
office in 1885, he became a leader of his party in his statesman- 
like management of affairs in his position as chairman of the 



CITIZEN PATRIOTS. 469 

republican state committee — a position to which he has twice 
been chosen. 

The men and women mentioned at random in this chapter, 
like the hundreds of other men and women who were like able, 
patriotic, and self-sacrificing for our common country, and whose 
names space forbids recalling, formed the legion of Iowa's patriots 
at home. They were the active Army of the Reserve. 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 

A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 

The first Iowa soldier wounded in battle was H. C. Darrah, 
a private of the First infantry, who had an arm shot off at 
Wilson's Creek. The last shot fired at Shiloh was by the 
Sixth Iowa infantry, at the time under the lead of James A. 
Garfield, later President of the United States. The last shot 
fired against the Rebels in the war was by members of the 
Third Iowa cavalry, not far from Macon. The first shots fired 
in the great Vicksburg campaign were by the Twenty-first Iowa, 
and the only troops to enter the works of defense of Vicksburg 
during the fearful assault of May 22d were a small squad of the 
Twenty-second Iowa infantry. The first troops to enter Col- 
umbia, South Carolina, the birth-place of the Rebellion, were 
Iowa troops, and the flag of an Iowa regiment was the first union 
flag placed on the capital. The city of Montgomery, the first 
rebel capital, was first entered by Iowa cavalry, and an Iowa 
flag was the first to float over the steps where Jefferson Davis 
took his oath of office as President of the Southern Confed- 
eracy. The first rebel flag of note, the " Palmetto" flag, made 
by the ladies of Charleston, was captured by Iowa soldiers, and 
is a trophy of the state at the present time. 



The first slaves armed in defense of the Union were enlisted 
by an Iowa officer. Eleven anti-slavery Quaker boys of Cedar 
county, Iowa, resolved to enter the regiment of the noted Col. 
Montgomery, in Missouri. They had been schoolmates aud 
friends of the Coppic boys who had engaged with John Brown 
in the raid on Harper's Ferry. One of these was hung with 

(470) 



A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 471 

Brown — the other, Barclay Coppic, escaped to Iowa, but was 
never surrendered to Gov. Wise's gallows. He, too, started to 
join Montgomery's regiment, but was killed on the way in a 
railway accident caused by rebel guerrillas. The rest of that 
Quaker band of boys marched through the rebel lines from St. 
Louis to Springfield in October, 1861. They raided many plan- 
tations on the way, giving the slaves their liberty, receiving, as 
a recompense, their tears and their blessings. It is said that 
that band of brave Quakers never cheered but once in the war, 
and that was on the news of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclama- 
tion. One of these Iowa boys was Ransom L. Harris, later a 
lieutenant of the Seventy-ninth United States colored troops. 
In recruiting for a colored regiment, he enlisted 28 slaves, and 
started with them for Fort Scott. Gen. Halleck heard of it 
and sent a company of cavalry in pursuit. Ransom was over- 
taken and by Halleck's orders was thrown into prison. Later, 
he was released, and Senator Lane, learning of the facts, secured 
Ransom's appointment as a lieutenant. With some of these 
same slaves, he fought the Rebels later, in the severe battle of 
Poison Springs, and at Saline River. 



One of the bloodiest conflicts of the war was the battle of 
Franklin, yet no union regiment engaged there lost so many as 
did the Fifth Iowa at Iuka. The Forty-fourth Missouri lost 
heaviest of all at Franklin, viz., 163. At Iuka, the Fifth Iowalost 
out of only 482 engaged, 217 killed or wounded. At Pleasant 
Hill, the Thirty-second Iowa, also a small regiment, lost 210. 
At Allatoona, the Thirty-ninth lost three-fifths of its numbers, 
including its brave colonel. 



What became of the Iowa soldiers in the regiments may be 
imagined from a memorandum of the Fifth infantry. It mus- 
tered at Burlington, with 967 officers and men, and received 70 
recruits. Of this band of patriots — all young, healthy men, 
from office and shop and farm — 89 were killed in battle, 90 died 
of disease, 281 were wounded, 221 were broken down in health 
and discharged for disability, and 96 were captured and nearly 



472 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

all starved to death in rebel prisons. The little remnant left of 
the regiment was at last transferred to the Fifth cavalry. 



Many ofHhe Iowa regiments marched all the way from the Des 
Moines river to the heart of the Confederacy, and later, clear on 
to Richmond. Some traveled a distance of 10,000 miles; a few, 
a distance equal to a journey around the world. 



The captor of Gen. Pillow, A. L. Burnell, is now an Iowa man. 
At the time of his gallant act he was a sergeant of the Second 
Illinois cavalry. At the battle of the Hatchie he was one of but 
two of a body of 26 orderlies who remained mounted all day — all 
the remainder being killed or wounded. He is now one of the 
best officers of the national guard. 



The cost of living in Iowa in the war times, as compared with 
the prices in Richmond, is interesting to recall. Of course con- 
federate notes were at a terrible discount. The first price list is 
for Burlington, February 28th, 1863. The second is for Rich- 
mond at a little later date: 

BURLINGTON. 

Sugar $ .12% Hay $8.00 

Coffee 32 Eggs 06 

Salt 3.00 Whisky 43 

Rice 09 Coal Oil 60 

Flour 6.50 Wheat 1.25 

Corn 25 Rye 60 

Oats 48 Chickens, per dozen 1 .00 

Butter 15 

RICHMOND. 

Flour, per barrel $350.00 Meal, per pound $ 1.00 

Calico, per yard 15.00 Boots, per pair 300.00 

Corn per bushel 50.00 Sugar, per pound 1.00 

Coffee, per pound 18.00 

Gold $28 for $1. Greenbacks, $18 for $1. 

Rebel privates in the array were getting $11 per month, or enough to buy 
a couple of pounds of tobacco. 



A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 473 

Beating a war Secretary did not occur often, especially when 
that secretary was E. M. Stanton, of Lincoln's cabinet. Hon. 
J. B. Grinnell, on being elected to congress, insisted that the 
gallant Col. E. W. Rice, who had been promoted for gallantry at 
Donelson, be made a brigadier general. Mr. Stanton refused to 
talk with civilians on the subject. He would not permit inter- 
ference with army appointments. Mr. Grinnell still importuned, 
urged that Rice deserved this, that all the officers of his com- 
mand approved it, wanted it, and, that he, Grinnell, personally 
had come to Washington to demand it. "No use, sir," answered 
the Secretary. " Your case, sir, is like thousands. What we 
want now is victories, not brigadiers. We are in a crisis. I re- 
fuse, sir, to make a promise even to consider the wish of a civil- 
ian at such a time. I am sorry. My desk is loaded with busi- 
ness; I must say good morning." A second call ended as 
abruptly as the first. "No use in a civilian's talking to 
me on the subject, sir." "Neither can I waive a civilian's 
rights," added Mr. Grinnell. "Then go to the President," 
said the Secretary sharply. "That would be an offense; 
my regard for the Secretary of War would make that step a last 
resort." " Get your request granted and I will resign," said 
Stanton angrily. One more trial, and Mr. Grinnell did see the 
President. After returning from a walk and hearing the full 
details as to Rice's strong endorsements, Lincoln asked for a bit 
of paper, leaned against one of the pillars of the White House 
and wrote " Without an if or an and, let E. W. Rice of Iowa be 
made a brigadier general. A. Lincoln." The bit of paper was 
handed to the Secretary. "I will resign," he said, crushing the 
paper and tossing it into the waste basket. Mr. Grinnell was 
about to go. " Wait," said the Secretary, smiling for the first 
time in a month; "Wait, Mr. Grinnell; come over and take 
dinner with me." Mr. Grinnell was compelled by engagements 
to leave the city at once, but shortly he was tendered the 
colonelcy of a regiment. Elliott W. Rice was made a brigadier; 
was later made brevet major general and continued what he 
had always been, a brave and competent officer, whose deeds 
added luster to the state. His commission, by mistake, was made 



474 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

out in the name of his brother, Samuel A. Rice; but, as the 
latter was also being urged for promotion at another part of the 
army, no harm wa3 done. The brothers both got the stars they 
had earned, and both were popular officers, the elder brother 
giving his life for the cause. 

The Copperheads of Iowa were as good as their word when 
they threatened in secret conclave to oppose the state govern- 
ment in its support of the administration, and, if need be, to 
resort to violence and bloodshed. The first open outrages were 
attempted at South English, in Keokuk county. On the 1st 
day of August, 1863, a band of Copperheads held a public meet- 
ing and afterward rode through the village wearing copperhead 
badges, shouting treason, and brandishing arms. The bystanders 
shouted " cowards " at them, when they fired on the people. The 
fire was instantly returned and Tally, the copperhead leader, was 
shot dead. The governor sent some companies of militia to the 
scene and the desperadoes dispersed to their homes. Fremont 
county, on the Missouri border, also witnessed violence the same 
autumn. On October 30th, suspected characters were noticed 
on the road near Sidney. Provost Marshal Van Eaton and a 
few assistants started after them, but the party was soon am- 
bushed from the roadside and the marshal murdered. Shortly 
afterward, the fine court house at Sidney was blown up with 
gunpowder — probably by the same desperadoes who had mur- 
dered the marshal. In the following autumn, October, 1864, 
outrageous murders were committed in Sugar Creek township, 
Poweshiek county. The neighborhood was the home of disrepu- 
table scoundrels of all sorts — Knights of the Golden Circle, draft 
evaders, deserters, and, as it proved, of murderers. On the last 
day of September, Provost Marshal James Mathews sent two 
officers, Josiah M. Woodruff, a special agent from Oskaloosa, and 
Capt. John L. Bashore, into the disreputable neighborhood, to 
arrest some deserters. Fifteen miles south of Grinnell on the 
road to Oskaloosa, the officers were waylaid and brutally mur- 
dered.* Woodruff was not only killed — his body was dragged 

*About this time bands of ruffians and disloyal subjects organized them- 
selves into what was called the "Skunk river army." They were mostly 



A CHAPTER" OF MISCELLANIES. 475 

into the bushes and filled with bullet holes, and Bashore's brains 
were beaten out with the butt of a rifle. In the woods near by, 
bands of Copperheads had been assembled to resist the law. The 
bloody bodies of the murdered officers were taken to Oskaloosa, 
where nothing but cool judgment and regard for law, prevented 
the people from taking vengeance on the whole malodorous 
Sugar creek neighborhood, most of whom were held to be acces- 
sories of disloyal assassins. 

Other foul murders of union men occurred in Davis county at 
about the same time as the outrages in Poweshiek. A band of 
12 men disguised in federal uniforms, well mounted and armed, 
entered Davis county from Missouri on the 12th of October. 
They rode through the county, robbing the farmers and commit- 
ting the most horrible murders. Passing a team in the road, 
they would demand the horses. The least hesitancy on the part 
of the owner, and he would be shot from his wagon. Union 
soldiers, home on furlough, when found among the farmers, 
were deliberately and foully murdered. The assassins were pur- 
sued day and night by Col. J. B. Weaver and others, but with 
fleeter horses they escaped into Missouri. Lt.-Col. S. A. Moore, 
an aide of the governor and one of the state's heroic soldiers, liv- 
ing at Bloomfield, was active in attempts to capture the outlaws. 
He wrote a graphic and detailed account to the governor of the 
outrages and murders committed in Davis county, which was 
printed in the reports of the adjutant general for 1864. All 
these outrages and murders in Iowa in 1863-4, were the result 
of copperhead teachings, and when not committed directly by 
themselves, were committed by their associate and allied outlaws, 
from Missouri. At a disloyal Peace meeting, styling itself the 
" Democracy " of Davis county, one Wm. A. Rankin proposed 
resolutions declaring the war ' k a wicked abolition crusade against 
the South; 1 ' " that the draft should be resisted to the death; that 
free negroes brought into Iowa should be driven out, and those 
who brought them be driven with them, or given hospitable 

denizens of the villages and woods contiguous to the two Skunk rivers, and 
from Mahaska, Keokuk and Poweshiek counties. They made frequent 
demonstrations, but were too cowardly to fight, and their so-called army dis- 
solved in disgrace. They had intended much harm, and doubtless the whole 
of them were as. scaly a lot of scoundrels as ever missed a gallows. 



476 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

graves.'" The resolutions were adopted unanimously. They 
afforded a true view of the infamous principles of the copper- 
head party, and were fit accompaniments of the murders that 
disgraced the state. 



There is a page of history connected with the war days too 
infamous for utterance. It concerns the treatment of union 
prisoners captured by the South. Were the dreadful facts not 
vouched for by thousands of witnesses, and under solemn oath, 
the world would pronounce the horrible tales of starvation and 
murder in the South the inventions of monsters. Union sol- 
diers were huddled together by thousands, even tens of thou- 
sands, in the sickly sand pens of Georgia, and there starved to 
death. Around these infamous prison holes, stockades of logs 
were built, on top of which rebel soldiers stood sentinel, waiting 
to shoot down any poor wretch who might wander too near the 
fatal dead line. Thirty thousand union prisoners were penned 
up in Andersonville alone, and left in the filthy sand without 
clothing, except the rags left after the robbery of their clothes 
at the time of their capture; without clean water; without 
opportunities of washing either their rags or their bodies; with- 
out even the usual army trenches for the demands of nature; 
without medicine; without food, except the half-rations of half- 
cooked corn bread, and without hope. They lay on the scorch- 
ing sand and filth by day, and slept uncovered in the dews and 
malaria of the sickly swamp near by at night. Thousands lit- 
erally starved to death, thousands died of the dreadful exposure 
in sand pens reeking with foul disease, rotting with untold ver- 
min and poisoned with accumulated filth. Human beings had 
never in the history of the civilized world been treated so before. 
Sixteen thousand men died in Andersonville alone. They were 
our brothers, fathers or sons. Iowa had hundreds and hundreds 
of her children die miserable deaths in that hole, fit for the 
damned. The wagons that brought in their miserable feed 
of unwholesome bread and dumped it into the filthy sand, 
went out loaded with the dead bodies of their comrades. 
Month in and month out, the union men sat there in the 
burning sun, starving to death and praying for release. As 



A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 477 

in this awful place, so in other places — Tyler, Belle Isle, Sal- 
isbury, Libby, Columbia; all filthy, cruel pens, running over 
with vermin and disease. In all the southern prisons the 
outrages differed only in degree. They were all a disgrace to 
the human race, a crime on manhood. Who was to blame? 
Whose hands were guilty of these fearful atrocities? There is 
but one answer. The President of the rebel states and the 
leading Rebels in power about him. They alone could by a word 
have stopped them, and they did not. Perfect official proofs 
show that they knew of and approved the atrocities, if they did 
not directly order them. The finger of time will point to these 
men as monsters, and the hand of the Almighty will, in due 
time, place the curse where it belongs. It is a farce on govern- 
ment, a travesty on justice^ a lie on history, that the very men 
who instigated this starving of prisoners, the burning of 
unarmed cities, and the wholesale poisoning of innocent people 
in the North, should, twenty-four years afterward, sit in high 
places in the South, and by outrages on the ballot box, and the 
murder of negro citizens, attain to honors and position in the 
North. Well may the thinking pause and wonder whether the 
country that raises its enemies to power and puts traitors and 
criminals in high place, is not building its own road to destruction. 

That the soldiers of the North and of Iowa do not propose 
that their sacrifices nor their dead comrades of the war shall be 
wholly forgotten, is evidenced by the hundreds of active, loyal 
posts of the Grand Army of the Republic scattered all over the 
state. The society is organized to keep alive the memories and 
the comradeship of the days that tried men's souls, and to incul- 
cate anew the lessons of loyalty to the country. Almost every 
ex-soldier in Iowa is a member, and to wear its badge is to wear 
the badge of honor. Different soldiers have been instrumental 
in placing the society on strong footing in Iowa. The names 
are recalled of Add. H. Sanders, the first commander, and Col. J. 
C. Stone, Philip M. Crapo, J. N. Caldron, Col. J. C. Parrott and 
Geo. B. Hogin. But first of all for earnest endeavor, and in the 
interest of the society, is the name of Maj. A. A. Perkins of Bur- 
lington. In the army days he had been an active and an excel- 

* 



478 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

lent officer on the staff of Gen. Osterhaus, and a few years after 
the war he was made department commander of the society of 
the Grand Army of the Republic for Iowa. Owing to a variety of 
causes the order was well nigh extinct, but with a zeal that was 
characteristic he labored for its interests, and the Iowa branch of 
the order so flourished as shortly to become one of the most suc- 
cessful departments in the country. 

Another outgrowth of the loyal sentiment in Iowa is the erec- 
tion by the state of the " Soldiers 1 Home." No state and no coun- 
try gives to its defenders who may have been unfortunate in the 
affairs of life a better reposing place for their declining years. 
Within the walls of this elegant structure are comfortably cared 
for, without money and without price, every dependent soldier 
who has served the Union, if living within the state. It is a gen- 
erous bounty that Iowa has manifested and one that will for cen- 
turies redound to her honor. Its chief promoters were the Iowa 
society of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the same feeling 
that led them in the war days to subscribe $90,000 from their 
slender pay to aid the women of Iowa in building a home for 
soldiers' orphans also led them to urge this larger home for their 
brave but unfortunate comrades. Many civilian patriots also 
labored for the founding of this just enterprise, most prominent 
of all being Senator Preston M. Sutton of Marshalltown. The 
Home was opened December 29, 1887, in the presence of the gov- 
ernor of the state, the department commander, the national com- 
mander of the Grand Army of the Republic, many distinguished 
state characters and thousands of patriotic people. Gov. Lar- 
rabee accepted the Home on the part of Iowa, and the Hon. 
Philip M. Crapo delivered an eloquent address on behalf of the 
soldiers. The Home at Marshalltown is not merely an asylum 
for decrepit Iowa soldiers; it is a monument of the state's grati- 
tude to the defenders of our country. Long years after these 
soldiers have all passed to the silent tenting ground, and after 
these citizens who built the Home are all dead, the building will 
stand there on the banks of the beautiful river, a silent monu- 
ment to Iowa's honor, and a witness to the truth of the patriot 
words writ upon the corner stone of this her noblest public edifice. 



PAKT II. 



HISTORIES OF IOWA REGIMENTS. 



REGIMENTAL HISTORIES. 



FIRST IOWA INFANTRY. 



The President's call for 75,000 troops, of which Iowa's quota was one 
regiment, went forth April 15, 1861. Gov. Kirkwood's proclamation calling 
for the raising of volunteer companies, dates the 17th. In the first of May, 
the companies sworn in at home, reported at Keokuk a th^e rendezvous. On 
the 11th, they elected their field officers, and on the.^Z. ,vere mustered into 
the United States service as the First Iowa infantry. John Francis Bates 
was made colonel, Win. H. Merritt lieutenant colonel and Asbury B. Porter 
major. June loth, the regiment, with the Second, was transported to Mis- 
souri to engage under Gen. Lyon. It arrived at Macon City and was sent to 
Renick, fifty miles northeast of Booneville. As the First Iowa approached 
Renick, horsemen of Jackson's defeated state troops were seen flying in all 
directions. June 19th, the regiment was marched to Booneville, reaching 
the Missouri river opposite that point on the 21st. On July 3d, Gen. Lyon 
brought his army by forced marches to Camp Sigel, ten miles northwest of 
Springfield. After some days, it marched twelve miles south to Camp 
McClellan. Six companies of the First, together with other troops, were sent 
to Forsythe, near the Kansas line. They returned, after dispersing a band 
of Rebels and capturing prisoners. 

August 1st, Gen. Lyon moved his army, and on the 2d, defeated Ben. 
McCulloch at Dug Springs. The Iowa First acted as skirmishers on the 
right wing of the army. Lyon pursued the Rebels and on the 4th returned 
to Springfield. He then planned to surprise the enemy, and the battle of 
Wilson's Creek ensued. (It is described in chapter 5.) The soldiers of the 
Iowa First, notwithstanding their term of enlistment had already expired, 
entered the battle with alacrity and ardor, won for themselves imperishable 
renown, and established the military honor of their state. They were led in 
battle by Lt.-Col. Merritt,Col. Bates being incapacitated by illness. The 
regiment returned home 800 strong. About 600 re-enlisted, many becoming 
officers in other regiments. 

Capt. Frank J. Herron of the First Iowa became, later, major general, and 
Capt. Chas. L. Matthies brigadier general. 



Field and Staff Officers 


of the First Iowa 


Infantry . 


COLONEL. 


MAJOB. 


SURGEON. 


CHAPLAIN. 


John Francis Bates. 


Asbury B. Porter. 


Iwm. H. White. 


|j. K. Fuller. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 


ADJUTANT. 


ASST. 8UBGEON. 


QUARTEBMA8TEB. 


Wm. H. Merritt. 


Geo. W. Waldron. 


Henry Reichenbach. Theodore Guelich. 



I. W. T.— 31 (481) 



482 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



SECOND IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the United States service at Keokuk for 
the term of three years, on the 27th and 28th of May, 1861. It was in 
response to the President's call of May 3d for 800,000 men. Samuel R. 
Curtis was elected colonel, James M. Tuttle, lieutenant colonel, and M. M. 
Crocker, major. The regiment left for Missouri June 13th. Headquarters 
were at St. Joseph. It remained to guard the railroad eastward and keep 
the country in order till the latter part of July. It was then ordered to 
Bird's Point for similar duty in Kentucky and Missouri. There was an 
immense sick list. In the latter part of October it returned to St. Louis, 
with only 400 men fit for duty. Its colonel, Samuel R. Curtis, became 
brigadier general, and Lt.-Col. James M. Tuttle succeeded in command. 
Maj. M. M. Crocker first became lieutenant colonel, and then was com- 
missioned colonel of the Thirteenth Iowa. Following this promotion, Capt. 
James Baker of Company G became lieutenant colonel. Adjt. Chipman 
became major, and was succeeded in the adjutantcy by Lieut. T. J. McKenny. 
During the winter the regiment was in St. Louis. For an offense in disci- 
pline on the part of the guard then in charge of a public building, the 
entire regiment was ordered to march to the steamer on its way to join Grant 
at Fort Donelson, '" x, without music and with colors furled. It arrived 
at Donelson February J.*uh, and was placed in Gen. C. F. Smith's division. 
On the 15th, in Lauman's brigade, it charged the works and covered itself 
with glory. (Described in chapter 10.) Gen. Halleck named the Second 
Iowa " the bravest of the brave." 

The regiment remained nearly a month at Donelson, then embarked for 
Pittsburg Landing, where, on Sunday morning, April 6th, it was suddenly 
called to take conspicuous part in the battle of Shiloh, which continued two 
days. (Its action in that battle is described in chapter 12.) Col Tuttle was 
in command of a brigade. Lt.-Col. Baker led the regiment. 

The Second joined in Halleck's Corinth campaign which followed. It was 
in pursuit of Beauregard after his evacuation of Corinth, and it waa then in 
camp near that place. It was marched to Iuka, but did not take part in the 
battle of Sept. 19, '62. Col. Tuttle being promoted brigadier general, 
Lt.-Col. Baker became colonel, Capt. N. W. Mills of Company D, lieutenant 
colonel, Lieut. James B. Weaver of Company G, major, and Lieut. Geo. L. 
Godfrey, adjutant. The latter succeeded Adjt. Tuttle, who had died of disease. 

On the 3d and 4th of October, 1862, the regiment took a brave part in the 
battle of Corinth, and suffered severely. Its brigade lost one-third of the 
number engaged. (For description of this battle, see chapter 14.) Col. 
Baker was mortally wounded on the 3d, and his successor in command, Col. 
Mills, on the 4th. The regiment now encamped near Corinth. There were 
a number of marches after raiders, and on Nov. 28th, 1862, and in April, 
1863, engagements with the enemy at Little Bear Creek and Town Creek, 
Ala., Col. James B. Weaver being in command. In the summer of 1863, 
the regiment moved to Lagrange, Tenn., and in the last of October to 
Pulaski, where it went into winter quarters. In the year following Corinth, 
under Gen. G. M. Dodge, it kept open communication between Middle and 
West Tennessee, preventing raids while Grant was operating around Vicks- 
burg. Col. James B. Weaver had succeeded Col. Mills, Capt. Henry R. 
Cowles of Company H had become lieutenant colonel, and Capt. N. B. How- 
ard of Company 1, major. 

At Pulaski, the time of enlistment having expired, the Second became by 
re-enlistment a veteran regiment. The non-veterans were mustered out. 

From Pulaski on April 29, 1864, the regiment began its march to take 
part in the campaign of Atlanta. It was in Gen. Elliott W. Rice's brigade, 
attached to the Sixteenth corps, commanded by Gen. G. M. Dodge. The 
regiment began skirmishing with the enemy May 9th, just after passing 
Snake Creek Gap in Georgia. On the 15th, it crossed the Oostanaula at 



THE SECOND INFANTRY. 483 

Lay's Ferry, where Gen. Rice turned the enemy's position, causing him to 
evacuate Resaca the next morning. At Rome Cross Roads, May 16th, the 
regiment was deployed as skirmishers. At Dallas, Georgia, commanded by 
Lt.-Col. N. B. Howard, it assisted, on May 27th, in establishing and intrench- 
ing our most advanced line, with severe skirmishing. On the 28th it par- 
ticipated in the defense of that position, when furiously assaulted by the 
enemy. On ttie 29th, it assisted in the defense during a sharp night attack. 
From June 10th to 30th, 1864, it took part in the siege of Kenesaw Moun- 
tain, Georgia. At Nick-a-jack Creek, July 4th, in the line of skirmishers 
of the Sixteenth corps, it became engaged in the afternoon and evening. 

On the 22d of July, it engaged in the battle of Atlanta, which is described 
in chapter 25. and took part in the siege. August 4th, led by Maj. Hamill, the 
regiment had a heavy skirmish. Till near the end of the month it was then 
in the trenches. August 30th, the army marched on Jonesboro. On the 31st, 
while supporting Kil Patrick's cavalry, it encountered the enemy and repulsed 
him. Maj. Hamill commanded and was among the wounded. During the 
whole of the Atlanta campaign, the Second Iowa lost, in killed and wounded, 
55. It captured 25 prisoners, one stand of colors, and 196 stand of small arms. 
Among its wounded were Lt.-Col. N.B. Howard, Maj. M. G. Hamill and Adjt. 
Voltaire P. Twombly : Lieut. Thomas K. Raush was killed. The regiment had 
now only six companies, and with these were consolidated three companies 
remaining of the Third Iowa; Lt.-Col. Howard became colonel. 

The regiment now belonged to the Fourth division commanded by Gen. 
John M. Corse of the Fifteenth corps. It started, November 16th, on the 
•'March to the Sea." At Eden Station, Georgia, December 7th, the regi- 
ment, under Col. Howard, was the first thrown across the great Ogechee on 
the pontoons laid for the passage of the Army of the Tennessee. After 
skirmishing along a causeway for a mile, it formed inline, assaulted a barri- 
cade, drove therefrom a battalion of the enemy and occupied the station. 
Two were killed and 2 wounded. 

December 10th to 20th, the regiment took part in the operations against 
the enemy's position along the Little Ogechee River. December 21, 1864, it 
entered Savannah with the army. January 28, 1865, it began the difficult 
march northward. February 15th and 16th it participated in the operations 
which resulted in the capture of Columbia. February 26th, at Lynch's 
Creek, South Carolina, the regiment being in advance of the division and 
corps, forded the stream three-quarters of a mile in width, and encountered 
the enemy's cavalry before completing the crossing. Lively skirmishing fol- 
lowed for three hours, when the enemy retreated. At Bentonsville, North 
Carolina, the regiment was in reserve. 

The Second then marched with the army by Goldsboro, Raleigh, Peters- 
burg and Richmond to Washington, where it participated in the grand 
review. Shortly afterward it moved to Louisville, where in midsummer it 
it was mustered out with the Army of the Tennessee, It i-eturned to Daven- 
port, being welcomed publicly by Congressman Hiram Price. A brief his- 
tory of the Iowa Second was furnished the adjutant general by Col. N. B. 
Howard. 

No regiment could have a more glorious record, and none produced so 
many distinguished men. Maj. -Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, Brig.-Gen. James 
M. Tuttle, and brevet Maj. -Gen. Marcellus M. Crocker, went first out in this 
regiment. The first adjutant, Norton P. Chipman, also rose to distinction 
during the war, as Chief of staff to Gen. Curtis, with the rank of colonel in 
the regular army. He was Judge Advocate in the court which tried Wirz of 
Anderson ville. Col. Jas. B. Weaver was brevetted brigadier general. 



484 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Second Iowa Infantry, 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Samuel R. Curtis. 


Marcellus M. Crocker. 


Wells R. Marsh. 


Andrew Axline. 




James M. Tuttle. 


Norton P. Chipman. 




Thos. Andi^ 




James Baker. 


Jas. B. Weaver. 




Jas. A. Wilson. 




Noah W. Mills. 


Noel B. Howard. 








Jas. B. Weaver. 


Mathew G. Hamill. 








Noel B. Howard. 


Oliver C. Lewis. 









LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


1 QUARTERMASTERS. 


Jas. M. Tuttle. 


Norton P. Chipman. 


Wm. W. Nassau. 


IJohnT. Stewart. 


M. M. Crocker. 


Thos. J. McKenny. 


Elliott Pyle. 


Alonzo Eaton. 


Jas. Baker. 


Joel Tuttle. 


Wm. fl. Turner. 


Jesse C. Wickersham. 


Noah W. Mills. 


Geo. L. Godfrey. 


Prentiss B. Clark. 




Henry R. Cowles. 


Wm. M. Campbell. 


Robt. H. McKay. 




Noel B. Howard. 


Voltaire P. Twombly. 






Geo. S. Botsford. 


Albert A. Barnes. 






Geo. L. Wright. 








Chas. W. Gurney. 






1 



THIRD IOWA INFANTRY. 



This regiment sprang to arms at the outbreak of the war. 1 1 was sworn 
into the United States service on the 8th and 10th of June, 1861, at Keokuk. 
Nelson G. Williams was commissioned colonel; John Scott, lieutenant 
colonel; Wm. M. Stone, major. June 29th, it left for Hannibal, Missouri. 
July 1st, before the arrival o'' its colonel, destitute of all equipment but 
empty muskets and bayonets, and without means of transportation, the regi- 
ment was hastened westward more than half way across the state. Two 
companies were left at Chillicothe, one at the bridge over Grand River, and 
the others at Utica. Col. Williams arrived at this juncture. July 8th, Capt. 
Herron, with three companies of the Third, moved toward Hannibal, form- 
ing a junction at Monroe with a detachment of the Sixteenth Illinois under 
Col. Smith, This force marched after the Rebels, skirmished at Hager's 
Woods, and retreated back to Monroe, where they found their train in flames 
and the track destroyed. The Rebels besieged the place, only retiring when 
union re- enforcements came up. From near the middle of July till August 
7th, headquarters were at Chillicothe, where were seven of the companies. 
The remaining companies guarded the railroad in the vicinity. There was 
now great hope of successful action. The regiment proceeded to Brookfield, 
and Lt.-Col. Scott started with it on an expedition against Col. Martin 
Green, in force near Kirksville, which place Scott was ordered to hold. Gen. 
Hurlbut came up with the Sixteenth Illinois soon after, but the men were 
disappointed as to a fight. Gen. Hurlbut tried pacific measures by procla- 
mation. At the expiration of the five days granted for consideration, our 
force marched after the Rebels, but it was too late. They were beyond reach, 
and the regiment returned to Brookfield, September 3d. One man, Corporal 
Dix, had been killed while scouting. 

Col. Williams in the meantime had received orders to move south with the 
remnant of the regiment which had remained with him. At Hannibal, he 
increased his force to between 600 and 700. He moved to Paris, but after a 
day retreated. At Shelbina, where, on September 4th, the enemy attacked 
him, he kept up his retreat. At Macon City he found Gen. Hurlbut, whom 
he had expected earlier, on his way to re-enforce him with 250 men. Col. 
Williams had lost one man wounded. Under such unfortunate leadership, 
the men of the Third Iowa were greatly discouraged. The arrival of Gen. 
Pope on the field led them to hope that something would now be accom- 
plished. Gen. Pope immediately ordered Gen. Hurlbut and Col. Williams 
to St. Louis in arrest. He then began concentrating troops at Hunnewell, 



THE THIRD INFANTRY. 485 

whore Lfc.-Col. Scott, as soon as he had returned to Brookfield from the 
Kirksville expedition, was ordered with the Third. Gen. Pope marched his 
troops by night against Green, near Florida, with the intention of surpris- 
ing him. In this object he completely failed, and the disappointed army 
marched back. 

In reading Lieut. S. D.Thompson's "Recollections with the Third Iowa Reg- 
iment," from which much material has been drawn for this sketch, the sym- 
pathies are warmly engaged for this brave regiment, continually suffering 
exposure, fatigue and disappointment, without even a chance to meet the 
enemy — this for want of a competent commander. The regiment went, 
September 12th, to Macon City, where was Brig. Gen. S. D Sturgis. The 
men felt again encouraged to hope for something. The Third was now 
removed westward to Cameron. On the afternoon of the 15th, 500 of its 
number, with about 70 home guards and some artillery, all under Lt.-Col. 
Scott, were marched to Liberty against the enemy. Scott reached there 
early on the 17th, and took position on the hill commanding the town at the 
north. Then followed the battle of Blue Mills. (Described in chapter 1.) 
Col. Smith having arrived with re-enforcements, the combined force moved 
on the enemy, who was already off to re-enforce Price. After two or three 
days, Scott got his troops on a steamer for Fort Leavenworth, and then 
passed down to Wyandotte, Kansas. Gen. Sturgis's headquarters were now 
three miles distant, at Kansas City. In October, the regiment was united 
at Quincy, 111. After a rest, it proceeded to Benton Barracks, at St. Louis, 
remaining till the day after Christmas. Under Maj. Stone, it spent the win- 
ter guarding the North Missouri railroad, with headquarters at Mexico. 
Col. Williams being relieved of arrest, arrived near the close of February, 
1862, and assumed command. 

Early in March the regiment was on its \jfay to join Gen. Grant's forces in 
Tennessee. It was assigned to the division commanded by Brig. Gen. 
Stephen A. Hurlbut, which disembarked March 17th at Pittsburg Landing. 

At the battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, the regiment took part with 
distinguished bravery. (Described in chapter 12.) TheThiid joined in the 
siege of Corinth, and after the evacuation, went into camp near town. 
Afterward, it went to Memphis. Sept. 6th it marched to the vicinity of 
Bolivar. It engaged with great honor and great loss in the battle of the 
Hatchie River Oct. 5th, in Lauman's brigade (described in chapter 14). Lt.- 
Col. Trumbull commanded. The regiment now returned to Bolivar and early 
in November joined in the march southward. It performed its part in the 
expedition into Central Mississippi, and on its return went into camp near 
Moscow, about the middle of January, 1863. Here it remained some time, 
then removed to Memphis. 

During this time, Col. Williams had resigned, and Lt.-Col. Trumbull still 
earlier. Aaron Brown was now colonel. Capt. James Tullis had been pro- 
moted lieutenant colonel, and Lieut. G. W. Crosley, major. May 17th the 
regiment embarked for Vicksburg, repelling severe attacks from land on the 
way, during which 14 were wounded. It took part in the arduous duties of 
the siege, taking its place May 25th in the investing line. It shared in the 
frequent conflicts with the enemy and the resulting losses. 

In the second siege of Jackson, in the division of Gen. Lauman, the Third 
fought heroically and suffered cruelly and needlessly. In the reckless assault 
to which its brigade was ordered, it was led by Maj. Crosley. About one- 
half of its number was left upon the field. (Described in chapter 18.) After 
Jackson, the Third Iowa, with ranks so sadly thinned, returned to Vicksburg. 
Soon afterward it moved with its division to Natchez. It returned to Vicks- 
burg in December and went into camp for the winter near the Big Black. Re- 
enlistment for veteran service having taken place, from February 3d to March 
4th, 1864, the regiment engaged in the famous Meridian raid under Gen. 
Sherman, during which 12 man of its number were lost. On March 17th, 
the veterans of the regiment under Maj. Crosley went home on furlough. 
The non- veterans under Lt.-Col. Tullis joined in Gen. Banks's Red River 



4.S6 iovta dj war times. 

expedition. At the close of that disastrous enterprise, the time of their 
enlistment having expired, they went home to Iowa, and were honorably 
mustered out of the service. Their comrades in the dangers and glory that 
had marked the proud career of the Third, the veterans, returned to the field 
to participate as a part of the Seventeenth corps in the Atlanta campaign. 
But the Third was now too few in numbers to admit of its remaining a 
regiment. It was formed into a battalion of three companies with one field 
officer. Col. Brown remaining with it for a time. At the battle of Atlanta, 
July 22d, 1864, it again suffered severely — so severely, that as an organiza- 
tion it could not longer survive. " In that fierce conflict," says Ingersoll, 
" the Third Iowa fought itself out of existence." The remnant of this brave 
regiment was consolidated November 8th? 1334, with the Second Iowa 
infantry, serving with it under Sherman till the war was ended. It had 
supplied from its numbers no less than nine colonels and lieutenant colonels 
for other regiments in the service. Col. Wm. M. Stone, afterward governor 
of Iowa, was its first major. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Third Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


SIAJOBS. 


SVBGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


kelson G. Williams. 

Aaron Brown. 


Wm. il. Stone. 
Aaron Brown. 
[Geo. W. Crosley. 


Thos. O. Edwards. 
Daniel H. Cool. 
Benj. F. Keables. 


[Prosper H. Jacobs. 


LTETJT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


AS6T. subgeons. 


QUABTEBSIASTEBS. 



John Scott. Fitzroy Sessions. Daniel il. Cool. Geo. W. C:ark. 

Matthew M. Trumbull. Gustavus H. Cushman. Benj. F. Keables. Phineas W. Crawford. 

J as. Tullis. David R. Martin. 



Jacob Abernethy. 



Joan W. Schooley. 
Edward W. Evans. 
Stephen E. Bobinson. 



Wm. Burdick. 



FOURTH IOWA IXFANTRT. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Camp Kirkwood, Council 
Bluffs, August S, 1351, with Grenville M. Dodge as colonel. John Galligan 
was lieutenant colonel, and Wm. R. English major. August 9th the regi- 
ment embarked for St. Louis. A detachment from the various companies, 
under Col. Dodge, had previously made a march to the southern border of 
Iowa to repel alhreatened rebel "invasion. August 24th the regiment went 
into camp at Rolla. Missouri. Gen. Curtis took charse, December 27th, of 
the •'Army of the Southwest," concentrating there. January 23, 1S62, the 
force marched toward Springfield. During this march and the campaign 
ending in the battle of Pea Ridge, Col. Dodge led the brigade of which the 
Fourth formed a part, and Lt.-Col. Galligan commanded the regiment. 
Springfield was approached February T2cb, when a skirmish took place and 
the enemy evacuated the town during the night. For three days the army 
pursued Price. At Sugar Creek, Col. Dodge's brigade supported the cavalry 
and artillery in a considerable engagement. The Rebels retired, and our 
armv rested for a few days. 

March Tth and 8th, the brilliantly fought battle of Pea Ridge took place. 
(Described in chapter 11.) In thi3 engagement the Fourth bore a conspicu- 
ous part. Tne army remained nearly a month in camp near the battle field. 
Col. Dodge was promoted brigadier general, and Lt.-Col. Galligan resigned. 
Adjt. James A. Williamson succeeded the latter, and a month later became 
colonel, when Capt. Burton of Co. D became lieutenant colonel. The little 
army of Gen. Curtis now made one of the hardest marches of the war. 
(Described in sketch of Gen. Curtis, chapter 33.) The intention was to 
move on Little Rock. After incredible suffering, Helena was reached July 
18th. From there, an expedition resulting in no advantage was undertaken 



THE FOURTH INFANTRY. 487 

up the Arkansas river. Another was made into Mississippi, destroying 
railroads and bringing back rich supplies of cotton, horses, etc. Much of 
this time Gen. Curtis had remained in command of the district, but to the 
regret of his attached command, he was succeeded by Gen. Schofield. The 
regiment remained at Helena till the departure of the army under Gen. 
Sherman for Vicksburg. On December 29th it bore so gallant a part in the 
disastrous battle of Chickasaw Bayou that Gen. Grant ordered to be inscribed 
on its banner, "The first at Chickasaw Bayou." (Described in chapter 17.) 
The army remained a few days near the battle field, caring for the wounded 
and dead. January 2, 1863, it embarked for down the river. At the mouth 
of the Yazoo it was met by Gen. McClernand, who superseded Gen. Sher- 
man in command. 

The regiment took part in the battle of Arkansas Post on the 10th and 
11th of January, 1863. (Described in chapter 17.) It was led by Lt.-Col. 
Burton, Col. Williamson being wounded and sick. The regiment went into 
camp January 22d, opposite Vicksburg. April 2d, it embarked with its 
division under Gen. Steele for 150 miles up the Mississippi river to Green- 
ville, whence it went on the celebrated raid of Deer Creek Valley. The 
object of this expedition was to get supplies and to divert attention from 
Grant's main movement at Vicksburg. The division returned, and at Grand 
Gulf, Miss., rejoined the army. It marched thence to Jackson, which city 
the Fourth Iowa was one of the first regiments to enter. Its division then 
spent two days destroying railroads, and arrived at Vicksburg May 18th, to 
participate in the siege. The regiment was in the assault of May 22d, and 
at various times engaged, losing in the siege 80 men. July 4th, tbe regi- 
ment took part in the second movement against Jackson, returning to 
Vicksburg, and then going into camp on the Black river. September 22d, 
it embarked for Memphis, and at once started on the march for Chattanooga. 

The regiment arrived at Chattanooga November 23d, and participated in 
the battle of Lookout Mountain on the 24th, Missionary Ridge on the 25th, 
and Ringgold on the 27th. December 3d, the regiment with its division 
went into camp at Bridgeport, Alabama, and then moved to Woodville. It 
remained there until February 26th, 1864, when re-enlistment having taken 
place, the veterans started home on furlough. By May 1st the regiment had 
rejoined the army, and was participating in Sherman's Atlanta campaign. 
(Described in chapter 25.) It was in the Iowa brigade of Col. Williamson, soon 
made brigadier general. In this series of battles, the Fourth made a gallant 
record, and its losses reduced it to less than 200 men. Up to this period a 
brief history of the regiment is furnished the adjutant genera) by Col. Wil- 
liamson. Following this, Maj. Nichols was promoted to the lieutenant 
colonelcy, and Capt. Anderson appointed major. October 4th, the regiment 
joined in the pursuit of Hood. 

The Fourth now took part in the brilliant "March to the Sea," and after- 
ward in the march through the Carohnas northward, in Col. Stone's gallant 
Iowa brigade. At Bentonsville, it was actively engaged. It marched on 
from Raleigh to Washington, participated in the grand review, and repaired 
to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was mustered out of service in July, 1865. 
In the farewell address of Col. Williamson, when promoted to brigadier 
general, touching allusion is made to the 1,000 volunteers^ who marched out 
as the Fourth Iowa, and the more than 300 added recruits,— while at that 
time less then 400 survived. One thousand had given their lives to our 
country! 

Grenville M. Dodge, first colonel of the Fourth, was made brigadier gen- 
eral March 31, 1862, and major general June 7, 1864. James A. Williamson, 
second colonel, was brevetted brigadier general December 19, 1864, and 
commissioned January 13, 1865. 



488 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Fourth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. MAJORS. SURGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 


Grenville M. Dodge. |Wm. R. English. [Myron W. Robbing. IThos. M. Goodfellow. 
Jas. A. Williamson. |joseph Cramer. iDan'l C. Greenleaf. IJohn G. Eckles. 
Samuel D. Nichols. iSamuel D. Nichols. 

Albert R. Anderson. 

|Randolph Sry. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUABTERMA.STEB8. 



John Galligan. 
Jas. A. Williamson. 
Geo. Burton. 
Samuel D. Nichols. 
Albert R. Anderson. 



Jas. A. Williamson. 
Robt. A. Stitt. 
John E. Sell. 
Lemuel Shields. 



Wm. S. Grimes. 
Lewis Bailey. 
Alex. Shaw. 
J. H. Rice. 
Dan'l C. Greenleaf. 
David Beach. 
Isaiah J. Whitfield. 



Phineas A. Wheeler. 
John A. Mills. 
John W. Tracy. 



FIFTH IOWA INFANTRY. 



Tms regiment rose to arms when Fort Sumter was fired on. It was sworn 
into the service at Burlington, on the 15th, 16th and 17th of July, 1861. 
Wm. H. Worthington was appointed colonel, Chas. L. Matthies, lieutenant 
colonel, and Wm. S. Robertson, major. It was ordered to Keokuk August 
2d. There, a detachment under Lt.-Col. Matthies was sent to northeastern 
Missouri, to help put down the Rebels under Green. Returning to Keokuk, 
the regiment embarked, August 11th. for St. Louis. On the 14th it went to 
Jefferson City. August 25th, Col. Worthington, with a detachment, made 
some arrests at Booneville, and confiscated rebel property. On the 28th, a 
detachment was sent to guard, for a time, the bridge of the Pacific railroad 
over the Osage river. September 1st, the regiment engaged in an expedi- 
tion toward Columbia. September 14th, it embarked to re-enforce Home 
Guards at Booneville. It remained at that place ten days, when it continued 
up the river to Glasgow, returning to Booneville in a week. October 4th, it 
joined in the march of Fremont's army toward Springfield, arriving there 
November 3d, and remaining till the 8th. It was in the brigade of Col. 
Kelton, in Gen. Pope's division. During the winter, seven companies were 
at Booneville under Lt.-Col. Matthies, and three companies at Syracuse, 
guarding the railway. Col. Worthington commanded the brigade with 
headquarters at Otterville. Feb. 6th, 1862, the Fifth started for Cairo, Illi- 
nois. Its next stopping place was Benton, Missouri, where it became a part 
of the Army of the Mississippi, under Gen. Pope. March 1st, the march on 
New Madrid was begun, the Fifth being in the First brigade, commanded 
by Col. Worthington, and in the Second division under Gen. Schuyler Ham- 
ilton. 

In all of the operations about New Madrid, Island No. 10, and against 
Fort Pillow, the Fifth bore an active and honorable part. From there, the 
regiment moved to Hamburg Landing, Tennessee, to participate in Halleck's 
movement against Corinth. May 22d, while at Farmington, occurred the 
death of Col. Worthington, who, while visiting at night the grand guard of 
the division as general officer of the day, was shot by a startled picket of 
our own army. Some months later Lt.-Col. Matthies succeeded to the col- 
onelcy, Capt. Sampson became lieutenant colonel and Capt. Banbury, major. 
Maj. Robertson, a popular and beloved officer, resigned. On the evacuation 
of Corinth by the Rebels, May 30th, the Fifth engaged in the pursuit, till 
on reaching Booneville it went into bivouac. June 10th, it returned to near 
Corinth and camped on Clear Creek. June 27th, it started for Holly Springs, 
Mississippi. June 30th, the expedition was abandoned, and the regiment 
returned to Rienzi, Mississippi. July 10th, it returned to Clear Creek. At 
this time, Gen. Rosecrans succeeded Gen. Pope in command of the Army of 



THE FIFTH INFANTRY. 489 

the Mississippi. Gen. C. S. Hamilton also succeeded Gen. Schuyler Ham- 
ilton in command of the division in which was the Fifth. 

August 5th, the regiment marched to Jacinto, Mississippi. September 
18th, it broke camp and marched for Iuka. In the late afternoon of the 19th 
of September, in the battle of Iuka, one of the hottest fights in history, the 
Fifth Iowa made a record for heroism, and won a glory which will last as 
long as the great deeds of the war are remembered. (Described in chapter 
13.) " The glorious Fifth Iowa," said Rosecrans, " bore the thrice repeated 
charges and cross fires of the rebel left and center with a valor and deter- 
mination seldom equaled, never excelled, by the most veteran soldiery. 1 ' 
"The Fifth Iowa," said Hamilton, "held its ground against four times its 
number." " It made every step a battle ground and every charge a victory." 
It was led by the brave Matthies. The regiment returned to Jacinto and Octo- 
ber 1st marched for Corinth. On the 3d and 4th of October it participated 
in the battle of Corinth. (See chapter 14.) On the 5th, it joined in the 
pursuit of Price. Gen. Rosecrans had been succeeded in command of the 
Army of the Mississippi by Gen. C. S. Hamilton. The division in which 
was the Fifth, was placed under Gen. Isaac F. Quinby. November 2d, the 
regiment marched to join Gen. Grant's Central Mississippi expedition, pre- 
paratory to the fruitless movement by Holly Springs. On returning, it 
was ordered, with its division, to Memphis, to march in advance with a 
train for supplies. Arriving there, it started back with the train on the 31st, 
but on the way was relieved and stationed a short time at Germantown. 
The division was now assigned as the Seventh to the Seventeenth army corps, 
Gen. McPherson commanding. 

January 31st, 1863, the regiment returned to Memphis. March 2d, it 
b°gan its work on the Vicksburg campaign, and from that time till the sur- 
render of Vicksburg, July 4th, its acts form a creditable part of the events 
of that period. 

The regiment participated in the novel and adventurous Yazoo Pass expe- 
dition, returning April 5th to its previous camp near Helena. April 13th, it 
embarked for Mdhken's Bend. Here the enthusiasm of the men was at 
such a point that it was difficult to restrain them from volunteering to run 
the blockade of the Vicksburg batteries. 

April 25th, the regiment entered on Grant's campaign around Vicksburg. 
May 1st, it crossed the Mississippi river at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, march- 
ing then for Jackson through the interior, being at Port Gibson on May 2d, 
Raymond on the 12th and Clinton on the 13th. The regiment participated 
in the battle of Jackson, May 14th. At the battle of Champion Hdls, on the 
16th. it distinguished itself anew by its gallantry and determined fighting, 
and lost heavily. (See chapter 18.) 

From May 19th to June 22d, the regiment was in front of the enemy's 
works at Vicksburg. It participated in the terrible, but fruitless, assault of 
May 22d, Col. Boomer, its brigade commander, being killed in the second 
charge of the afternoon June 22d, the brigade moved off to the Big Black 
river, to aid in preventing Johnston's re-enforcing Vicksburg. Brigadier 
general Matthies, who had been promoted from the colonelcy for gallantry 
at Iuka, commanded the brigade after Col. Boomer was killed. Lt.-Col. 
Sampson had been most of the time in command of the regiment. On June 
5th, Col. Banbury, promoted from major, assumed command. His official 
history of the regiment is the principal source of information for this sketch. 
Adjt. Marshall was made major. Quartermaster Sergt. S. H. M. Byers received 
his commission as adjutant, accompanied by the gift from Gen. Matthies of 
his own sash, in token of personal esteem. Adjt. Byers read his first order 
to the regiment on July 4th, announcing the fall of Vicksburg, which news 
was received by the brave Fifth with unbounded demonstrations of joy. 
Among esteemed officers of the Fifth Iowa who will be remembered with 
attachment by its members, was Chaplain Thos. Merrill, one of the very best 
Christian men in the United States service; numbers of whose " boys " from 
his school at " College Farm," near Newton, were in the regiment. Also, 



490 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



Surgeon Henry C. Huntsman, whose loyal service, whose skillful hand and 
humane and kindly acts awakened recognition and gratitude among the sick 
and wounded. The regiment was at Champion Hills and Black River 
Bridge from the 17th to the 24th of July, when it returned to Vicksburg. 
September 12th, it started for Helena, with the object of re-enforcing Gen. 
Steele, but that general's success in the meantime rendered this unnecessary. 
While the troops awaited transportation back, the division in which was the 
Fifth, was transferred to Sherman, to re-enforce the Army of the Cumber- 
land. The Fifth therefore was sent to Corinth, arriving on October 4th, the 
anniversary of the battle. Here the regiment was stationed at points on 
the railway, preparing for the march to Chattanooga, which was begun 
October 29th. 

The regiment arrived opposite Chattanooga, November 20th. It was now 
a part of the Third division, Fifteenth corps, and, with its division, crossed 
the Tennessee river in the night of November 24th, in the face of the enemy 
on Missionary Ridge. November 25th, in the battle of Missionary Ridge, it 
fought with desperate courage and lost heavily. (See chapter 21.) Among 
the captured were the major and adjutant. The regiment joined in pursuit 
of the enemy, returning to its old camp on the west bank of the Tennessee. 
December 3d, it was ordered to Bridgeport, later to Larkinsville. and on 
January 7th, 1864, to Huntsville. On April 1st, re-enlistment having taken 
place, the veterans of the Fifth started for Iowa to enjoy veteran furlough. 
On its expiration, they rendezvoused, May7th, at Davenport, and started for 
the front. At Decatur, Alabama, they rejoined the brigade. A few of the 
Fifth knowing the regiment was ordered to Madison Station, went there in 
advance, and were captured with other troops in a rebel raid upon the 
railway. The regiment now guarded the railroad till June 15th, when it 
was ordered to Huntsville, and June 23d to Kingston, Georgia. It soon 
moved to the Etowah river, guarding several fords and a bridge till late in 
July. While there, one man was killed and one wounded by guerrillas. 

July 30th, the non-veterans of the regiment received an honorable dis- 
charge from the service. So battle-thinned were the ranks of the Fifth 
Iowa that this virtually closed its existence as a regiment. Its remaining 
members, too few to maintain a distinct organization, were transferred soon 
after to the Fifth Iowa cavalry, in which they afterward did gallant service. 
Charles L. Matthies, first lieutenant colonel of the Fifth, was made brigadier 
general November 29, 1862. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Fifth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Wm. H. Worthineton. 
Charles L. Matthies. 
Jabez Baubury. 


Wm. 8. Robertson. 
Jabez Banbury. 
Wm. 8. Marshall. 


Charles H. Rawson. 
Peter A. Carpenter. 


Addison B. Medeira. 
Jas. C. Sharon. 
Thomas Merrill. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Chas. L. Matthies 
Ezekiel 8. Sampson. 


John P. Foley. 
Robt. F. Patterson. 
Wm. S. Marshall. 
Sam'l H. M. By^rs. 


Peter A. Carpenter. 
Henry C. Huntsman. 
Wm. H. Darrow. 


Robt. F. Patterson. 
Robt. A. McKee. 
Wm. S. Marshall. 



SIXTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into service at Burlington, July 17 and IS, 
1861. John Adair McDowell was made colonel, Markoe Cummins, lieuten- 
ant colonel and John M. Corse, major. August 3d the regiment was ordered 
to Keokuk. A detachment was sent on the 5th about twenty-five miles to 
Athens, Missouri, to help repel the Rebels under Green. On its returning, 
the regiment left, August 9th, for the seat of war. It remained in St. Louis 



THE SIXTH INFANTRY. 491 

till September 19th, when it went to Jefferson City. October 7th, the reg- 
iment started out on Fremont's campaign. It tarried four days at Tipton, 
where Fremont's army had concentrated, 30,000 strong. October 13th, the 
army was reviewed by Secretary of War Cameron, and Adjt. Gen. Thomas. 

The Sixth Iowa was among the troops under Gen. McKinstry, and made 
the trying march to Springfield of seventy-five miles in two days, over 
rough roads, with short rations. It arrived November 3d. Fremont was 
now relieved by Hunter, and a retrograde movement was commenced Novem- 
ber 9th. At Sedalia, Mo., the regiment remained till December 9th, when 
it was marched to the Lamine Bridge, and on January 22, 1862, to Tipton, 
to perform guard duty. Meanwhile, Lt.-Col. Cummins came into command 
of the regiment, Col. McDowell being absent on leave, and Maj. Corse being 
on detached duty on the staff of Gen. Pope, as inspector general. The 
Sixth was ordered on March 7th to Pittsburg Landing, and arrived on the 
16th. It took up position on our extreme right near Owl Creek. Company 
D was detailed to perform picket duty at the bridge on the road to Purdy. 
It remained on this duty till recalled to take its place in the battle opening 
April 6th, by a messenger from Gen. Sherman. Maj. Walden of Centerville, 
at that time captain ot Company D, relates that while on duty at the bridge, 
Charles Stratton, musician in his company, was shot in the hand early on 
the morning of the battle, by the enemy in advance, and that this was the 
first gun and the first blood in the battle of Shiloh. A brief sketch of the 
Sixth Iowa by Maj . Walden has been of great value in preparing this arti- 
cle. The Sixth was in the First brigade, Fifth division, in the command of 
Gen. Sherman. Col. McDowell commanded the brigade, Lt.-Col. Cummins 
the regiment. Later in the day, the latter was placed in arrest during the 
progress of battle, and was succeeded in command by Capt. Iseminger, who 
was killed. Capt. Williams then had charge of the regiment until severely 
wounded, when the command devolved on Capt. Walden. The regiment 
thus losing leader after leader in succession, still fought with a courage and 
persistency never surpassed. (See chapter 12.) On the second day of the 
battle, it was in the brigade of James A. Garfield, afterward President of 
the United States. 

After Shiloh, the Sixth joined the army under Gen. Halleck in the siege of 
Corinth, and was present when the Rebels evacuated the place, May 30th, 
1862. Lt.-Col. Cummins had been mustered out of the service by order of 
court-martial and had been succeeded in rank by Maj. Corse. The latter hav- 
ing been released from duty with Gen. Pope, was now in command of the 
regiment. Capt. John Williams of Company G, was promoted to the major- 
ity. During June, the regiment camped at various points. In the last of 
the month, it went on a reconnoissance to the interior of Mississippi. July 
2d, it skirmished with Forrest's cavalry, driving them from the way. It 
returned to Memphis July 24th, where it remained till in the autumn, its 
brigade doing duty as provost guard. November 17th, it was on a four 
days' scout to Holly Springs. In November, when Grant's campaign against 
Vicksburg, by attempting to secure position in the rear, commenced, the 
regiment, with the rest of Sherman's division, marched with the forces 
under Grant as far as the Yohnapatafa river. The army then being forced 
to return, the Sixth went into camp at Grand Junction, Tennessee, and dur- 
ing the winter of '62 and '63, being mounted, took part in several important 
raids in that vicinity. It was at this time attached to a division under com- 
mand of Brig. Gen. Wm. S. Smith. March 12th, Col. McDowell resigned, 
and at the same time, Lt.-Col. Corse was made colonel. Maj. Williams had 
resigned October 22, 1862, and had been at once succeeded by Capt. Alex. J. 
Miller, Company G. On March 14th, Maj. Miller was promoted lieutenant 
colonel, and Adjt. Thos. J. Ennis major. June 14, 1863, the Sixth was as- 
signed temporarily to the Ninth army corps, and stationed with two divisions 
of that corps at Haines's Bluff, to keep off Johnston. When Vicksburg fell, 
July 4, 1863, the Sixth was hurried away to the siege of Jackson. There, on 
July 16th, occurred the reconnoissance under Col. Corse, in which the Sixth 



492 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

distinguished itself by the most extraordinary valor and coolness. (See chapter 
18.) Gen. Corse says : " I cannot speak in too extravagant terms of. the officers 
and men of the Sixth Iowa on this occasion." Brig. Gen. Smith wrote a 
glowing congratulatory letter to their colonel. In this campaign and siege, 
the Sixth Iowa lost between 60 and 70 men. Col. Corse had so distinguished 
himself as to lead to his promotion to brigadier general. The regiment was 
now assigned to the Second brigade. Fourth division, Fifteenth army corps. 

In Sherman's famous march to Chattanooga, the Sixth was an active par- 
ticipant. In the battle of Missionary Kidge, November 25th, Maj. Ennis 
was severely wounded. (See chapter 21.) The regiment now marched with 
Sherman's army toward Knoxville, to relieve Burnside, marching over frozen 
ground, with scanty rations, some of the men barefooted. Gen. Sherman 
says of this march : 

"Seven days before, We had left our camps on the other side of the Ten- 
nessee river, with two days rations, withoufchange of clothing, stripped for 
the fight, with but a single blanket or coat to the man, from myself to the 
private. We had no provisions, save what we gathered from the roadside; 
but we knew that 12.000 of our comrades were beleaguered in Knoxville, 
eighty -four miles distant; and must have relief within three days. This was 
enough; it had to be done." 

The way thither was contested by the enemy, but the siege was raised on 
the night of December 4th, in anticipation of Sherman's arrival. The Sixth 
■went into camp at Scottsboro, northeastern Alabama, early in 1864, and 
remained during the winter. Here the re-enhstment of most of the men made 
it a veteran regiment. The veterans went home for furlough. April 27th, 
they left Davenport for Chattanooga, where the regiment entered on the 
Atlanta campaign, being again in the Second brigade, Fourth division, Fif- 
teenth army corps. It participated in all the battles and many of .the skir- 
mishes of this campaign. (Recorded in chapter 25.) Col. Miller was 
wounded at Dallas, Major Ennis then assuming command. Adjt. Newby 
Chase was mortally wounded. At Big Shanty, Acting Adjt. Lieut. John 
S. Grimes, was killed. At Atlanta, July 28th. Maj. Ennis, commanding the 
regiment, was mortally wounded. Capt. W. H. Clune led the regiment 
through the rest of this hot fight. From Resaca to Lovejoy, the regiment 
lost in killed and wounded 159, nearly half of the number with which it com- 
menced the campaign. At the close of the campaign, it went into camp 
near Atlanta with 120 fit for dutv — scarcely more than a company! In a 
month came marching orders. The regiment started northward, to help 
drive away Hood's threatening forces, had a week's rest, and then, about 
the middle of November, started on the march to the sea. 

At the battle of Griswoldsville, November 22d, the Sixth lost 4 killed and 
20 wounded. Arrived in Savannah, it remained three weeks. Major Clune 
was promoted lieutenant colonel and Capt. David J. McCoy major. 
The difficult march through the Carolinas northward began the middle of 
January, 1865. At Columbia, South Carolina, in skirmishing with the 
enemy, the regiment lost 1 killed and 7 wounded. It participated in the 
battle of Bentonsville, North Carolina, and, with the army, made the march 
from Raleigh to Richmond, 150 miles, in five days. At Washington it took 
part in the grand review. Of this scene, L. D. Ingersoll writes in " Iowa 
and the Rebellion." 

" It was my fortune to witness that magnificent spectacle, and I shall never 
forget the emotions of pleasure with which I heard the shout of applause 
that greeted this thinned regiment, as it wheeled into Fifteenth street, in 
front of the grand colonnade of the Treasury Department. Its colors were 
torn into shreds, its number was small; but the men marched with a free, 
steady step and that elastic sprina: which only belongs to veteran troops. 
The Sixth then marched to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was mustered out of 
the service, July 21st, 1865. No regiment in the service marched more. 
endured more, suffered more, fought more battles, or lost more killed than did 



THE SEVENTH INFANTRY. 



493 



the Sixth Iowa, and none should be more gratefully remembered by the peo- 
ple of the state." 

Gen. John M. Corse, first major of the Sixth, was made brigadier general 
August 11, 1863, and brevet major general October 5, 1864. Major John 
Williams was later brevetted brigadier general. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Sixth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


John A. McDowell. 


John M. Corse. 


Albert T. Shaw. 


John Ufford. 


Johu M. Corse. 


John Williams. 


Win. S. Lambert. 




Wm. H. Clune. 


Alex. J. Miller. 
Thos. J. Ennis. 
Wm. H. Clune. 








David J. McCoy. 







LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



Markoe Cummins. 
John M. Corse. 
Alex. S. Miller. 
Wm. H. Clune. 



IE. B. Woodward. 
IWillard H. Harland. 
| Thos. J. Ennis. 
Newby Chase. 
Andrew T. Samson. 
Robert A. Stitt. 



John E. Lake. 
Wm. S. Lambert. 
Norman M. Smith. 



James Brunaugh. 
Peter A. Crichton. 
Orrin P. Stafford. 



SEVENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was organized in Burlington, and the first companies mus- 
tered in just after the battle of Bull Run, the last company on August 2, 
1861. J. G. Lauman was made colonel. Like other western regiments, the 
Seventh was hurried to Missouri with all the haste possible. August 6th, it 
embarked for St. Louis, but soon left there for Pilot Knob. In two weeks 
more the regiment commenced its first regular campaigning. In a division 
under Gen. B. M. Prentiss, in the last of August, it moved to Jackson, Cape 
Girardeau county. In a week more, it left for Cairo, 111. Here it crossed 
the Ohio river to Fort Holt, Kentucky, and after two weeks moved to May- 
field Creek, and established Camp Crittenden. Here it was joined by the 
lieutenant colonel, Augustus Wentz. The command soon moved to Fort 
Jefferson, on the Mississippi. A strong picket guard had been kept up at 
Camp Crittenden, where occurred a skirmish in which 1 man was wounded. 
From Fort Jefferson, the regiment now moved to Norfolk and Bird's Point, 
then again to Norfolk. Here, Sergt. Elliot W. Rice, being promoted major, 
entered upon duty. The regiment soon returned to Bird's Pointy Novem- 
ber 6, 1861, the Seventh, forming with the Twenty-second Illinois the Sec- 
ond brigade of a detachment led by Gen. Grant in an expedition toward 
Columbus, left Cairo by steamer and passed down the river about half way 
to Columbus, stopping over night at Lucas Bend. At daylight of the 7th the 
troops proceeded and debarked about two or three miles above Belmont. 
Col. H. Dougherty of the Twenty-second Illinois commanded the Second 
brigade. The troops were immediately drawn up in line of battle, and in 
the battle of Belmont which ensued, the Seventh distinguished itself by hero- 
ism, and lost the most heavily of any regiment engaged. (See chapter 8.) 
Lt.-Col. Wentz was among the killed. Iowa was indeed proud of the bravery 
of the Seventh in its first battle. On the evening of November 7th the 
shattered regiment arrived at Bird's Point, and was shortly ordered to St. 
Louis. About the middle of January, 1862, it was ordered to the South. 
Via Cairo, Fort Holt and Smithland it moved up the Tennessee river to 
attack Fort Henry, which fort it entered upon the surrender to Commodore 
Foote, remaining one week. 

February 12th, the regiment marched for Fort Donelson, arriving the 



494 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

same day. At 5 p. m. it was ordered to the front, to support a battery. The 
night was spent without shelter or blankets. On the morning of the 13th, 
Company C, Capt. McMullin, was deployed as skirmishers. Orders soon came 
to join the brigade going into action. The regiment fell into line, double- 
quicked to position in front of the rebel works and remained till after 
dark in line — then withdrew. The rain had changed to snow. The troops 
suffered greatly in the night. On the 14th, several companies were deployed 
as skirmishers. Another inclement night was endured. Several inches of 
snow fell. On the 15th, skirmishers were again deployed, and at 2 p. m. the 
Seventh was ordered to join in the charge on the rebel works — a charge 
gloriously executed. (See chapter 10.) After the surrender, the regiment 
remained some three weeks within Fort Donelson. It was next ordered to 
Pittsburg Landing. 

When the battle of Shiloh opened, April 6th, it was summoned from 
parade for inspection, to take its place at the front. It fought in the Iowa 
brigade under Gen. J. M. Tuttle. (See chapter 12.) Lt.-Col. Parrottwasin 
command, Col. Launian having been promoted, for gallantry at Fort Donel- 
son, to the command of a brigade. Maj. Rice was afterward promoted to 
the colonelcy, and Capt. James W. McMullin of Company C to the majority. 
On the 8th, the regiment was marched forward some miles after the enemy. 
Finding nothing, it returned. April 27th, the army, under Halleck, was 
moved forward to the siege of Corinth. When Corinth was evacuated, the 
Seventh, with its division, was ordered to pursue. The pursuit was termina- 
ted at Booneville, Miss. In a few days, the regiment retraced its steps, 
and, with its brigade, formed Camp Montgomery, near Corinth. It re- 
mained here the rest of the summer. September 15th it was ordered to 
Iuka. In the battle of the 19th, the Seventh took no direct part, and imme- 
diately after returned to Camp Montgomery. 

In the battle of Corinth, October 3d and 4th, the Seventh bore a conspicu- 
ous part, and maintained its high reputation. (See chapter 14.) Gen. 
Sweeney commanded its brigade. On the 5th, the regiment pursued the 
enemy. On the 7th, it was ordered to Rienzi, and shortly to Boneyard. 
After a month, it returned to Corinth, and passed the winter of '62 and '63 
in tents. In March, it was ordered to Bethel, Tenn., and on June 1st 
returned to Corinth. Here the regiment built good quarters, but was unex- 
pectedly ordered away immediately to Moscow, Tenn., to remain a month. 
From there it was ordered to Lagrange, Tenn., for afew days. From Moscow 
and Lagrange, the command made two or three expeditions into Mississippi, 
one via Holly Springs, when it was absent two weeks. The regiment returned 
from Moscow to Lagrange, and commenced to prepare winter quarters, but 
was again ordered to leave on October olst. It was cold weather, and the 
men rode on the top of box cars to Iuka, where they went into camp for a 
few days. They then took up line of march, and crossing the Tennessee 
river at Eastport, arrived November 11, 1863, at the wealthy and beautiful 
little city of Pulaski, Tenn. Here they went into camp, and, in the absence 
of tents, constructed huts, or "shebangs," as they were styled in army 
phrase. The supplies had to be wagoned from Smith's Station, thirty-six 
miles distant. It was the duty of the Seventh, in inclement weather in 
December, to escort a train of 150 wagons on this errand, after which the 
"shebangs" seemed doubly luxurious. About December 20, 1863, orders 
were received to allow the men who had been in service two years, to re-enlist 
as veterans. About three-fourths of those present with the regiment 
re-enlisted. The veteran portion of the regiment started for Iowa to receive 
furlough, January 7, 1864. February 20th, they rendezvoused at Keokuk; 
and by the 25th had 200 new recruits. The regiment now started for the 
front. Reaching Prospect, Tenn., it garrisoned that post till near the close 
of April. April 27, 1864, the Seventh set out on the famous Atlanta cam- 
paign. This glorious march was a succession of skirmishes and Sghts. 
Brig. Gen. E. W. Rice, former colonel of the Seventh, led the advance of 
the Army of the Tennessee, and at Oostanaula river, Lay's Ferry, the Sev- 



THE EIGHTH INFANTRY. 



495 



enth distinguished itself in a brief but brilliant conflict. (See chapter 25.) 
It was led by Maj. McMullin. This movement resulted in the Rebels aban- 
doning Resaca the same day. The men were so full of enthusiasm and 
ardor it was difficult to withdraw them from the enemy and restrain them 
within proper bounds. Fighting went on till September 1st, and the Sev- 
enth Iowa bore an honorable part in all. At Rome, the Seventh cast its 
vote for president. There were 320 voices for Lincoln, and 2 for McClellan. 
November 15th, the regiment joined the column moving forward in the 
march to the sea, arriving at Savannah December 21st. 

At the close of the Georgia campaign, according to the report of Lt.-Col. 
J. C. Parrott, who commanded it, the regiment numbered 549 men. It had 
not been increased by the draft, neither by recruits since the time of its 
becoming a veteran regiment. The losses of the regiment on the march to 
the sea were only 3 men wounded — 2 slightly in a skirmish December 7th, 
and 1 severely on the 11th, in front of the works at Savannah. 

The Seventh remained five weeks in Savannah, and then with hopeful 
spirits began the difficult march northward through the swamps of South 
Carolina, in mid winter, amid hostile surroundings, and in rain and snow. 
It was 480 miles to Goldsboro, and thirty-nine miles corduroy road were 
constructed. Through Goldsboro, Raleigh and Richmond, the regiment 
marched to Washington, where it took its part in the grand review. It 
then moved to Louisville, where it was honorably mustered out of the ser- 
vice it had so bravely shared. Jacob G. Lauman, first colonel of the Seventh, 
was made brigadier general March 21, 1862. Elliott W. Rice, first major, 
became brigadier general June 20, 1864, and later brevet major general. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Seventh Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. SURGEONS. 


CHAPLATNS. 


Jacob G. Lauman. 
Elliott W. Rice. 
James C. Parrott. 


Elliott W. Rice. 
James W. McMullin. 
Samuel Mahon. 


Amos Witter. 
Calvin B. .Lake. 
Jos. Everingham. 


I. Harvey Clark. 
Isaac P. Teter. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Augustus Wentz. 
James C. Parrott. 
Samuel Mahon. 


Daniel F. Bowler. |Asa Morgan. 
Allen D. Cameron. John Ashton. 
Wesley W. Sapp. [Jos. Everingham. 


Stiles E. Forsha. 
Chas. H. Trott. 
Wm. W. Birdsall. 



EIGHTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

To the courtesy of some of the surviving officers of the gallant Eighth Iowa, 
the author is indebted for material for this sketch, Judge^ Ryan having pre- 
pared one dating from its organization to the battle of Shiloh, and Col. Bell 
having completed the same to the mustering out of the regiment. The Eighth 
was mustered into the service at Davenport, in September, 1861. Frederick 
Steele was made colonel, James L. Geddes, lieutenant colonel, and John C. 
Ferguson, major. Several of the companies had already been away four 
days in Northern Missouri, to aid against the Rebels. September 24th, at 
11 p. m., the boys were aroused by the appearance of Adjt.-Gen. Baker with 
the orders to march next day for St. Louis — an order received with wild 
demonstrations of joy. Preparations for the march lasted all night. It is a 
query what they were packing all this time, having neither arms, uniforms, 
nor camp or garrison equipage, except a few iron camp kettles. At 4 o'clock 
in the morning, the regiment, with all its " plunder," appeai-ed at the wharf 
and waited with impatience to be received on board the " Jenny Whipple," 
which steamer bore it to St. Louis. At Keokuk, arms were supplied, "Bel- 
gian muskets "—and such muskets! Uneven caliber, some crooked barrels, 
locks out of repair! The boys called them "pumpkin slingers " and pro- 



496 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

nounced the crooked barrels adapted to shooting around hills. At St. Louis, 
the Eighth marched to Benton Barracks where drilling was vigorously pur- 
sued. Every orderly sergeant will bear testimony with the first adjutant 
that the most exasperating duty was the " morning reports." Col. Steele 
not having taken command, Lt.-Col. Geddes took his place. The clothing 
and camp and garrison equipage were distributed in the following generous 
manner: Being drawn by the regimental quartermaster, they were depos- 
ited in a pile on the parade ground, and each company commander directed 
to march his men to the place, where they were supplied. Company officers 
made no requisitions and the quartermaster took no receipts. It is needless 
to add that the quartermaster had difficulty in settling his accounts with his 
department. 

October 15th, came marching orders. The knapsacks of these young 
recruits, marching out on that first campaign, were swelled out with their 
contents till they resembled pack peddlers. The first issue of hard tack had 
nearly created insurrection. Some of the boys sent for their officers, exhib- 
ited this "staff" on which they afterward learned to lean, and protested 
that they would not submit to such treatment. How many lessons were yet 
to be learned by the volunteer! 

The regiment left St. Louis on flat cars, with rations of " hard tack" and 
the historic " sow bosom." On the trip it rained almost continuously. To 
cook the meat on the train was impossible. It had to come, and as well 
now as later! So it was on this trip that the men learned to eat their po' - k 
raw with their hard tack. Later, those men learned to bless their stars when 
they had it to eat. The regiment moved via Jefferson City to Syracuse. Now 
Col. Steele had command. Being a regular army officer with high ideas as 
to discipline, the colonel found much to contend with in diilling his young 
Iowa volunteers. Here, Secretary of War Cameron reviewed the troops. 
It was the first " review " for the Eighth, and like the other volunteers just 
from home, they were more intent on reviewing than on being reviewed. 
The sensitive ones recall that Col. Steele was not elated with the appearance 
of his regiment at that time. 

October 21st, the regiment started for Springfield. Each company was 
allowed two six mule teams with three for regimental headquarters. Com- 
pany mess chests contained tin plates, cups, spoons, knives and- forks for 
each man. Tents, axes, hatchets and the knapsacks of the weak were piled 
into these wasrons till they could hold no more. The third day brought the 
regiment to Warsaw, on the Osage river, with rations exhausted. After one 
day without supplies, the regiment crossed the O^aere and spent five days in 
a memorable camp called " Pommedeten," subsisting upon fresh beef and 
unbolted wheat, without salt for either. The supply train then arrived, and 
"hard tack" and its companion piece were no longer despised. On the 
30th, the regiment resumed its route. Lt.-Col. Geddes was in command, 
Col. Steele having been assigned to the command of a brigade. A messen- 
ger from Fremont, at Springfield, brought intelligence that Price was threat- 
ening an attack on that place. At early dawn, a forced march was under- 
taken for its relief, and 38 miles marched. At daylight the march was 
resumed and continued to within four miles of Springfield. But a large 
portion of the men did not reach camp that night. They were strewn along 
the line of march for miles. Knapsacks, with their contents, lined the road 

Gen. Fremont was now relieved, and about November 4th Springfield 
was evacuated. The Eighth took up line of inarch for Sedalia. The terri- 
ble forced marching and the lack of pioper rations began now to show their 
results in sickness and death, which continued through 'the winter. Five 
men died on the return march. About November 21st, Companies E and K 
were detached and sent as escort for a wagon train and drove of 1,200 cattle 
destined for Fort Leavenworth. These companies spent the entire winter 
on the border. They returned to Sedalia about March 1, 1862, and then 
mustered as many men fit for duty as all the remaining eight companies, 
among whom sickness and death had made alarming havoc. Some of the 



THE EIGHTH INFANTKY. 497 

convalescents in the hospital were poisoned by pies bought from a rebel 
woman. 

March 11th, 1862, the regiment was ordered to St. Louis and thence to 
Pittsburg Landing. On the Tennessee river the boat was fired into by 
Rebels and two men killed and three wounded. Arriving about March 21st, 
the Eighth was attached to Sweeny's brigade. In the battle of Shiloh, 
April 6th, it bore a conspicuous part, fighting with heroism and endurance, 
till surrounded and cut off, together with the Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa, 
it was compelled to surrender. (See chapter 12.) The regiment endured a 
six months' imprisonment in the South — the enlisted men at Macon, Georgia, 
and the officers, for the most part, at Selraa, Alabama, and Madison, 
Georgia. The latter were paroled at Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, 
October 16th, 1862; the enlisted men being paroled a short time previously. 
All were sent to St. Louis. (For a record of the members of the Eighth 
who escaped capture at Shiloh, see " Union Brigade.") 

The Eighth Iowa was reorganized at St. Louis, during the winter of 
1862-3, and was sent to Rolla. It returned in the spring and was ordered 
to join Grant's forces near Vicksburg, where about April 1, 1863, it was 
assigned to the Third brigade, Third division, Fifteenth army corps, com- 
manded by Gen. W. T. Sherman. May 2d, it moved, with its corps, 
around Vicksburg, and crossing at Grand Gulf, moved by way of Port Gib- 
son and Raymond to Jackson, Mississippi, where it took part in the assault 
on that place. It assisted in destroying the railroads, and then moved with 
its corps to Vicksburg. It was in the bloody assault of May 22d, and served 
through the entire siege. After the fall of Vicksburg, July 4th, the regiment, 
with its corps, moved under Sherman in pursuit of Johnston, and joined in 
the second siege and battle of Jackson. When Jackson was evacuated it 
joined in the pursuit and the fight at Brandon. Sherman's army now set 
out for Chattanooga, the Third division of the Fifteenth corps being left to 
guard the railroad. The Eighth Iowa was stationed at Pocahontas, Ten- 
nessee, from about October 30th to January, 1864. During this time, 
re-enlistment for veteran service took place. 

January, 1834, the Third division took part in Sherman's raid into the 
interior of Mississippi. That campaign closed, the non-veterans of the 
Eighth regiment joined the Red river expedition under Gen. A. J. Smith, 
while the veterans went home to Iowa on furlough. After 30 days stay 
they returned South. At Memphis, Tennessee, under Lt.-Col. Bell, the reg- 
iment performed the difficult service of provost guard, Col. Geddes being 
provost marshal of the district of West Tennessee, commanded by Gen. C. C. 
Washburn. During the summer of 1864, at Memphis, the Eighth Iowa was 
inspected by Gen. Marcy, Inspector General, U. S. A. He requested Lt.- 
Col. Bell to drill the regiment through the park and streets, and after 
thorough inspection said to him : " I have inspected the Army of the Potomac 
and all the troops in the Northwest, and your regiment has done what no 
other regiment has. It is fully equal to any regiment in the regular army. 
It is a wonder to me how you have learned it." Well may the gallant 
Eighth have been gratified with this unusual tribute to its soldierly acquire- 
ments! August 21st, 1864, occurred the brilliant repulse of Forrest's 
cavalry, winning the highest recognition from the city of Memphis. 
(Described in chapter 29.) Again in January, 1865, when the Eighth Iowa 
was ordered to New Orleans, the citizens of Memphis manifested, in a 
marked manner, their regard for this gallant regiment. 

The Eighth camped for a time on the old battle field eight miles below 
New Orleans, and then took passage for Mobile. It moved with Canby's 
army against Spanish Fort. In the reduction of that stronghold (described 
in chapter 32), the regiment, led by Col. Bell, won the first honors. After the 
fall of Mobile, the Eighth was ordered to Montgomery, Alabama, and was 
assigned to provost duty. This city had bem the scene of imprisonment for 
some of the regiment, now revisiting it under such widely different circum- 
stances. In the autumn the regiment was sent to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and 
I. W. T.— 32 



49S 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



during the winter to Selma. April 20, 1866, it was mustered out of the 
United (States service. It had been nearly five years in the field, and was 
the last volunteer regiment from Iowa to leave the government service. 

Its first colonel, Frederick Steele, was made brigadier general in February, 
1862, and major general November 29, 1862. His successor, Col. Jas. L. 
Geddes, who was wounded and imprisoned at Shiloh, served again, after his 
release, with distinction, and was brevetted brigadier general June 5, 1865. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Eighth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 



MAJOR?. 



KniuKuss. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Frederick Steele. 
Jas. Loraine Geddes. 
Wm. Stubbs. 



John C. Ferguson. 
Joseph Anderson. 
Fredrick S. Palmer. 
Wm Stubbs. 
Samuel E. Rankin. 



James Irwin. 

Aug. W. Hoffmeister. 

Samuel V>. Cook. 



I Cyrus G. VanDerveer. 
Wm. Poston. 



LIECT. COLONELS. 



Jas. Loraine Geddes. 
John C. Ferguson. 
Wm. B. Bell. 
Andrew Geddes. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. BURGEONS. 



Geo. H. McLoughlin. 
Samuel E. Rankin. 
Marion Campbell. 
George W. Marsden. 
Joseph C. Stoddard. 



P. B. Clark. 

Aug. W. Hoffmeister. 

S. D. Cook. 

Isaac M. Houston. 

Geo. H. Noyes. 

W. D. Hoflman. 

Chas. McGovern. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Wm. McCullough. 
Wm. Downard. 



NINTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

Hon. Wm. Vandever, member of congress from Iowa, obtained special 
permission the day after the battle of Bull Hun, to raise a regiment in his 
district. The Ninth infantry responded to the call. It was organized at 
Dubuque, and mustered into the service September 24, 1861. Wm. Vande- 
ver was colonel, Frank J. Herron lieutenant colonel and Wm. H. Coyl major. 
The regiment was immediately sent to St. Louis, and October 11th, moved 
to Franklin to guard the railroad. The great Army of the West was now 
preparing for a grand forward movement. At Lebanon, the regiment joined 
the Army of the Southwest, commanded by Gen. Curtis. It was placed 
in Vandever's brigade, and in Carr's division. Curtis hoped to capture 
Price in Springfield, and marched for that point. It was too late. Price 
had evacuated. Curtis pursued rapidly, halting at Cross Hollows, Arkansas. 
On Sugar Creek the Ninth had its first skirmish, behaving with coolness and 
courage, charging upon an enemy three times as numerous as itself, and 
under the fire of a battery of artillery, driving the enemy before it. March 
7th and 8th occurred the memorable battle of Pea Ridge, whither the Ninth 
was hastened from Huntsville where it had been sent in a detachment under 
Col. Vandever. No historic march ever exceeded that— forty-two miles in 
fourteen consecutive hours. In the engagement the regiment won brilliant 
renown. (See chapter 11.) The regiment now went with Curtis's army 
through Missouri and Arkansas. After a march of 600 miles of hardship, it 
arrived at Helena, July 17, 1862. (See sketch of Gen. Curtis, chapter 33.) 
At Helena the Ninth remained five months, and had the pleasure of receiv- 
ing as a tribute to its bravery at Pea Ridge, a stand of beautiful silk colors 
embroidered in gold. It was presented by ladies of Boston through Miss 
Phcebe Adams. These colors were afterward borne over many a proudly won 
battle field. Later, they were given back by unanimous voice — one to the 
donors, and one to Gen. Vandever, the first colonel of the Ninth. In Decem- 
ber of 1862, the regiment was assigned to the Fifteenth army corps, and 
placed in Thayer's brigade of Steele's division to aid in the attack on 
Vicksburg. December 23th and 29th, it shared in the battle of Chickasaw 
Bayou. (See chapter 17.) It took part in the assault and capture of Arkan- 



THE NINTH INFANTRY. 499 

sas Post, January 11, 1863. Col. Vandever soon parted from his regi- 
ment, boing promoted brigadier general. Capt. David Carskaddon was 
appointed to the colonelcy. During February and March the regiment 
was at Young's Point, a wet, malarial and dismal region, where sickness 
and death made fearful havoc in its ranks. April, 1863, was occupied in the 
Deer Creek expedition under Steele. May 2d, the regiment started on the 
march to the rear of Vicksburg. On the 14th it reached Jackson and took 
part in its capture. On the 18th it took position at the right of our lines 
before Vicksburg. Tt was in the assault of May 19th, and in the terrible one 
of May 22d, where its bloody colors were drawn out from under the last 
of the guard who fell within a few feet of the enemy. July 4th, when Vicks- 
burg fell, the total loss of the regiment in the siege had been 121. That 
same night, the Ninth was again on the march for Jackson and participated 
in the siege. When Johnston retreated, July 16th, the regiment followed 
to Brandon, where 1 man was killed. By July 31st, it was in camp 
on Black river. Gen. Osterhaus was now placed in command of the divis- 
ion in which was the Ninth Iowa, and Col. Williamson, Fourth Iowa, of 
the brigade. This brigade was composed of Iowa troops, the Fourth, Ninth, 
Twenty-fifth, and Thirty-first, and remained under Col. Williamson until 
the close of the Savannah campaign, when his promotion called him to 
another field. September 22d, the regiment was ordered to move to Cor- 
inth, Mississippi, from whence, later, the march to Chattanoocra was begun. 
The regiment halted at Lookout Mountain, November 23d, just in time 
to take part in "the battle above the clouds," November 24th. On that 
day, among the rocks and amid the mist, its command made prisoners 
of "a rebel brigade. On the 25th, it was at Mission Ridge. It was also 
at Ringgold. This closed the campaign. The loss of the Ninth had been 
3 killed and 16 wounded. The regiment established winter quarters at 
Woodville, Ala. It had marched in the year, 870 miles on foot, 1,300 by 
water and 100 by railway, and numbered now 510. January 1, 1864, 287 of 
the regiment re-enlisted as veterans and went home to enjoy furlough. At 
Nashville, an elegant new silk flag, to replace the battle-torn one which had 
been given back after Vicksburg. was received from the ladie3 of Boston. 
The regiment re-assembled at Davenport, March 15th. Capt. George 
Grander had been promoted to the majority, Maj. Carpenter having died on 
January 12th. Under Maj. Granger, the regiment arrived at Woodville. 
Ala., April 10th. Col. Carskaddon, returned from sick leave, now led the 
regiment, May 1st, to the Atlanta campaign. 

Tue regiment took its place in the line of battle made up of the armies 
of the Tennessee, the Cumberland and the Ohio, confronting the Rebels under 
Gen. J. E. Johnston. In the four months following, in this brilliant cam- 
paign, the Ninth participated actively and gallantly with the Fifteenth 
corps. It marched 400 miles, largely by night, crossing three rivers and 
many streams in the enemy's face. It constructed numerous lines of works 
and it participated with honor in that long series of engagements. By Sep- 
tember 8th, the campaign over, the regiment was at East Point. Ga. It had 
lost, since May 1st. 14 killed, 70 wounded and 6 captured. At Ezra Church, 
July 28th, Col. Carskaddon was slightly wounded. The non-veterans were 
mustered out September 23d, and furloughs granted to five per cent of the 
men. Before much advantage had been taken of this leave, Hood showed 
signs of activity, the furloughs were suspended, and by October 4th the 
Ninth was again on the move. After the pursuit, the regiment returned to 
Atlanta. November 12th, it helped tear up and destroy the railroad and fill 
up the cuts. On the 15th, commanded by Capt. McSweeney, it followed 
Sherman on the march to the sea. It reached Savannah without loss. Dur- 
ing the year the Ninth had marched 1,400 miles, and traveled by steamer 
and railroad 1,900. The number in the regiment was 442. After a short 
stay in Savannah, the Ninth, in its brave Iowa brigade, joined in the march 
northward. Col. Carskaddon returned, and was honorably mustered out of 



500 



IOWA IX WAR TIMES. 



service, his term of enlistment having expired. Maj. Abernethy, promoted 
from captain of Co. F, in place of Maj. Granger, who had died, took com- 
mand of the regiment. The Ninth participated in the grand review at 
Washington, and about the middle of July was mustered out of the service 
at Louisville, Ky. 

Wm. Vandever, the first colonel of the Ninth, became brigadier general 
November 29, 1862, and was brevetted major general June 7, 1865. Frank 
J. Herron, first lieutenant colonel, became brigadier general July 30, 1862, 
and major general November 9, 1862. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Ninth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 


Wm. Vandever. 
David Carskaddon. 


Wm. H. Goyl. 
Don A. Carpenter. 
George Granger. 
Alonzo Abernethy. 
Chester W. Inman. 


Benjamin McClure. 
Edward J. McGorrisk. 


Amos B. Kendig. 
Alanson Barbour. 




LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Frank J. Herron. 
Wm. H. Ooyl. 
Alonzo Abernethy. 


Wm. Scott. 
Chas. McKenzie. 
Gnus. H. Lyman. 


Henry W. Hart. 
Chas. A. Reed. 
Geo. W. Carter. 
Lewis H. Cutler. 


Ferd'nd S. Winslow. 
Jerome Bradley. 
Franklin A Morton. 
Henry H. Gray. 



TENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was organized at Iowa City, August, 1861. Nicholas 
Perczel was made colonel, Wm. E. Small lieutenant colonel, and John C. 
Bennett major. It was sent to St. Louis, and October 1st to Cape Girardeau, 
against the Rebels under Hardee and Pillow. October 10th at Bloomfield it 
dispersed Jeff. Thompson's band. The regiment was ordered, November 
12th, to Bird's Point, from whence expeditions were frequently sent out. 
January 8, 1862, one of these, under the colonel, was fired on from ambuscade, 
and though the enemy was finally dispersed, 15 of the Tenth were either 
killed or wounded. March 4th, the regiment departed for New Madrid. In 
less than four months in its unhealthy camp it had lost 96 men. The regi- 
ment was the first to enter New Madrid, March 14th. At Island No. 10 it 
participated in the capture. On April 7th and 8th, the Tenth was also at 
hand in capturing at Tiptonville between 5,000 and 6,000 prisoners, lately 
the force or Island No. 10. April 10th, the New Madrid forces, styled the 
Army of the Mississippi, were moved down the Mississippi, to attack Fort 
Pillow, which was bombarded. The bombardment was cut short by orders 
from Gen. Halleck to join in the siege of Corinth. In this siege, the recon- 
noissances and skirmishes, the regiment performed its duties faithfully and 
with spirit. This was especially the case in the skirmish of the 9th of May, 
and another at Farmington on May 26th, where the Tenth had 8 wounded. 
Corinth was evacuated May 30th. The pursuit ended at Booneville, Miss. 
Returning, the regiment camped on Clear Creek, near Corinth. _ On the 29th 
there was an expedition to Ripley. There was much sickness in camp and 
many died. The regiment moved to Jacinto July 29th. September 18th. the 
command moved to luka. It participated in the battle of luka, September 
19th. (See chapter 13.) The following day, it joined in the pursuit. In the 
battle of Corinth, October 3d and 4th, the Tenth was in the Second brigade, 
Gen. Sullivan, Third division, Army of the Mississippi. Maj. McCalla com- 
manded the regiment. It bore a gallant part in that gallant engagement. 
(Described in chapter 14.) The Rebels were pursued toward Ripley and the 
Tenth returned to Corinth. November 1, 1862, the division left on a recon- 
noissance to Holly Springs, which was occupied a short time. December 



THE TENTH INFANTRY. 501 

12th. the regiment joined in the movement under Gen. Grant into central 
Mississippi, having for its object the attack of Vicksburg from the rear. 
When this movement was frustrated, the army turned and commenced the 
march back, December 22d. At Lumpkin's Mill, Quinby's division, in which 
was the Tenth, was sent to Memphis, in charge of a train for supplies for 
the army, consisting of several hundred wagons. These were loaded and on 
January 1st and 2d, escorted to Lafayette on the .railroad, where the army 
awaited them. After guarding the railway a month, the regiment went to 
Memphis, where it remained till soring. Col. Perczel had resigned before 
the inarch into Mississippi. Maj. Bennett had resigned a short time before 
the close of 1861, and early in 1862, Capt. McCalla, who commanded at 
Corinth, had been promoted to his place March 4th, Quinby's division 
embarked for down the river to Louisiana Bend, and, on the 8th, returned to 
Helena. The regiment, with Quinby's command, was in the novel expedi- 
tion of the Yazoo Pass. (Described in chapter 17.) The Tenth had for a 
time been attached to the Third brigade of the Seventh division, Seventeenth 
army corps, Gen. McPnerson. In the Vicksburg campaign, following this, 
the Third brigade was commanded by Col. Boomer. 

April 25th, this great campaign opened. It was the destiny of the 
Tenth to take conspicuous positions in bloody battles, and through des- 
perate fighting win laurels by its valor. Gen. Quinby being sick, Gen. M. 
M. Crocker had command of the division. May 1st, the division crossed 
the river at Bruinsburg, and was present at the battles of Fort Gibson and 
Raymond. The Tenth fought at the battle of Jackson, May 14th. Then 
followed the bloody battle of Champion Hills. (See chapter 18.) Among 
the different Iowa regiments that distinguished themselves, the Tenth 
fought heroically— desperately. Such fighting, and at a critical juncture of 
battle, turned a prospective defeat into brilliant victory. It carried assur- 
ance of the fall of Vicksburg. On the 19th, the division took position in the 
line investing Vicksburg. The regiment participated, with its brigade, in 
the fearful assault of May 22d. Here fell its gallant brigade leader. Col. 
Boomer. He was soon succeeded in command by Gen. Matthies. The Third 
brigade was in the force detailed to hold Johnston in check and was ordered 
out on the defensive line on Black river, June 22d. When Vicksburg sur- 
rendered, it joined in the hasty pursuit of Johnston, and in the campaign of 
Jackson, returning to Vicksburg July 19di. Early in September, the division 
was ordered to go to Little Rock, to re-enforce Gen. Steele. At Helena, the 
order was revoked, Gen. Steele having already succeeded. September 29th, the 
division was ordered to Memphis, to be united with the Fifteenth corps under 
Gen. Sherman which was to march to Chattanooga, to re-enforce the Army 
of the Cumberland. It arrived at Chattanooga November 19th. In the 
battle of Chattanooga, which ensued, November 24th, 25th and 26th, the 
brigade of Gen. Matthies well sustained its high reputation won on hotly 
contested fields. (See chapter 21.) The Tenth and the Fifth were still com- 
rade regiments, together with the Ninety-third Illinois and Twenty- 
sixth Missouri. The Tenth fought with heroism. After the victory it 
joined in the pursuit. January 9, 1864, it went into winter quarters at 
Huntsville. A reconnoissance to Mooresville, Alabama, had taken place. 
Early in February, nearly 300 of the Tenth had re-enlisted, and March 30th 
it became a veteran regiment. February 11th, the Tenth, under Matthies, 
formed part of a detachment accompanying Thomas east of Chattanooga, 
with the object of holding Johnston from re-enforcing Polk, while Sherman 
was marching on his destructive Meridian raid. April 30th. the brigade was 
ordered to Decatur, Alabama. June 15th, the veterans of the regiment were 
ordered to Iowa on veteran furlough. They returned to Kingston, Georgia, 
August 1st. Shortly after, there was an expedition to Mill Place. 

The Tenth now served in a movement of great importance in connection 
with the simultaneous movements of Sherman in the Atlanta campaign. It 
was directed against the rebel raiders under Wheeler, who were threatening 
the lines of army supplies. It was under Generals Steadman, Rousseau, 



502 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



Granger and Milroy, and was a trying march of nearly 1,000 miles. The 
regiment returned to Kingston. Tbe old Third brigade, which for two years 
had fought together, sharing the fortune of camp and field, was now dis- 
banded. The remnant of the Fifth Iowa was transferred to the Fifth cav- 
alry; the term of enlistment of the Tenth Missouri had expired, and the 
Seventeenth Iowa had been nearly all taken prisoners at Tilton; so that the 
remnant of the Third brigade was merged into the First and Second brigades. 
The brave Tenth, with the Twenty-sixth Missouri, was attached to the latter, 
commanded by Gen. Raum. Sept. 28th, the non-veterans of the regiment 
were mustered out; but 150 new recruits were mustered in, early in October. 
The Tenth Iowa, as a part of the Second brigade, Third division, Fifteenth 
corps, joined in Sherman's " March to the Sea." The regiment participated 
in the attacks preliminary to its entering Savannah, Dec. 21, 1864. Jan. 9. 
1865, the command began its march through the swamps of South Carolina. 
There was incessant rain. Feb. 5th, at the passage of the Salkahatchie, the 
Rebels were intrenched on the opposite of the swamp. The Second brigade, 
Third division, being in advance, the Tenth Iowa was delayed as skirmish- 
ers. With the Fifty-sixth Illinois, it waded the stream waist deep, and 
charged upon and drove the Rebels from their intrenchments. The regi- 
ment had two wounded. An engagement in which the Tenth was warmly 
engaged occurred March 19th, at the Cross Roads near Cox's bridge on the 
Neuse river, where the Second brigade destroyed the bridge. The Tenth 
lost 1 man killed and 4 wounded. The sanguinary battle of Bentonsville 
had taken place on the same day. 

The Fifteenth corps entered Goldsboro on the 22d. At this time, accord- 
ing to the complete and valuable official history of the regiment, by Win. H. 
Silsby, lieutenant colonel commanding, the Tenth Iowa had 22 officers and 
456 men. It had marched in the last four months, over 800 miles of hostile 
territory. In its whole ca:eer, it had traveled 8,175 miles, and had served in 
ten states in rebellion. The regiment continued its march to Raleigh and 
Washington City, participating in the grand review. It then went to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, but mustering out was delayed until August 15th, at Little 
Rock, whither it had been ordered. Thus closed the gallant record of the 
Tenth Iowa. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Tenth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Nicholas Perczel. 
Wm. E. Small. 
Paris P. Henderson. 
Wm. H. Silsby. 


John C. Bennett. 
Nathaniel McCalla. 
Robert Eusby. 
Aaron W. Drew. 
John M. Cochran. 


Wm. P. Davis. 
Richard J. Mohr. 


David W. Tolford. 
Wm. G. Kephart. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. AS8T. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Wm. E. Small. Thos. W. Jackson. Andrew j. Willey. 
Paris P. Henderson. John Delahoyde. [Richard J. Mohr. 
Nathaniei McCalla. Wm. Manning. j Wm. C. Cummings. 
Wm. H. Silsby. Henry S. Bowman. John O. Skinner. 
Aaron W. Drew. |Wm. Everett. 


James Trusdell. 
Frank W. Crosby. 
Geo. G. Lindley. 



THE CROCKER BRIGADE. 503 

THE CROCKER BRIGADE. 
The Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Regiments. 

This brave command, brigaded together after the battle of Shiloh, and 
fighting together till the end of the war, is the oldest brigade organization in 
the great army of the Union. From Shiloh on, the history of each regiment 
is almost the history of all. 

The Eleventh was organized at Davenport November 1, 1861, with Abra- 
ham M. Hare as colonel. Wm. Hall was its first major and also its first lieu- 
tenant colonel, being succeeded in the majority by John C. Abercrombie. 
Abercrombie was one of the be-st men in the service, and his abilities, and 
courage, brought him the highest promotion in his regiment. When the 
body of Lt.-Col. Wentz, of the Seventh, killed in battle at Belmont, was 
sent home to Davenport, it was the sad duty of the Eleventh to attend it to 
the grave with military honors. The regiment was sent to St. Louis, and 
December 8th to Jefferson City. December 14th, with a battalion of the 
Third cavalry, it started campaigning to Booneville, capturing gunpowder. 
There was an expedition to Providence and one to Boonsboro, which place 
was captured. December 23d, five companies under Lt.-Col. Hall went to 
California, Missouri, scouting — the other five, under Col. Hare, to Fulton. 
March 10, 1862, the regiment moved for Pittsburg Landing. At the battle 
of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, it fought with honor. (See chapter 12 ) It was 
led by Lt.-Col. Hall, Col. Hare taking the place of Brigade Commander 
Oglesby. It was in McClemand's division. 

The Thirteenth Iowa was mustered into the service at Davenport, Novem- 
ber 2, 1861, with Marcellus M. Crocker (lieutenant colonel of the Second) as 
colonel, Milton M. Price as lieutenant colonel and John Shane as major. 
The regiment was sent to St. Louis, and December 13th to Jefferson City. 
In the spring of 1862, it was ordered to report to Gen. Grant at Pittsburg 
Landing, arriving there March 23d. It was assigned, with the Eleventh, 
to Oglesby's brigade (First) and McClemand's division (First). At the battle 
of Shiloh it at once entered the fight, was ten hours under fire, bore itself 
with coolness and courage, and suffered severely. The lieutenant colonel 
and major were wounded. (See chapter 12.) April 16th, Lt.-Col. Price 
resigned and Maj. Shane was soon promoted to his place. Capt. Geo. M. 
Van Hosen becime major. 

The Fifteenth Iowa was organized at Keokuk, February 22, 1862. Hugh 
T. Reid was colonel, Wm. Dewey lieutenant colonel, and Wm. W. Belknap 
major. It left for St. Louis, March 19th, and was ordered at once to Pitts- 
burg Landing. April 6th, it reported to Gen. Prentiss, while the cannon of 
Shiloh were thundering and the wounded and flying seeking the rear. It 
was ordered into the hottest of the fight. Without training, without exper- 
ience, in this fiery baptism the men bore themselves like true soldiers. Colonel, 
major and adjutant were wounded. April 29th, a beautiful silken flag from 
Iowa was presented to the Fifteenth in recognition of its valor at Shiloh. 
The " old flag," still so new, riddled by eleven bullets, with the staff nearly 
severed by four balls, is preserved by the state. 

The Sixteenth Iowa was the last regiment raised in response to the Presi- 
dent's call for volunteers the first year of the war. It left Davenport March 
20, 1862, but its organization was completed March 24th at St. Louis. Alex- 
ander Chambers, a regular army officer who had mustered in many of the 
preceding regiments, was made colonel. Col. Chambers' name was familiar 
to every soldier in Iowa. He was not only a well drilled officer; he was a 
competent officer, and a brave man. He was twice wounded while gallantly 
leading an Iowa regiment. He later attained to important rank in the reg- 
ular army, and died in the service of his country. Addison H. Sanders was 
lieutenant colonel and Wm. Puroell major. The regiment was immediately 
dispatched to Pittsburg Landing. Like the Fifteenth, it arrived April 6th, 



501 IOWA IN WAK TIMES. 

when the battle of Shiloh was raging, and was ordered into the thickest of 
the fight to fire its first gun in the service. It passed unflinchingly through 
the fierce ordeal. 

April 27th, these four regiments were united in the "Crocker brigade." 
Later, it was usually spoken of as the "old Iowa brigade of the Seventeenth 
corps." In the absence of Col. Crocker, and at his promotion, the brigade 
was commanded by others; by Col. Reid of the Fifteenth; by Colonels Hare 
and Hall of the Eleventh; by Gen, J. M. Tuttle; by Col. Chambers of the 
Sixteenth, and by Col. Shane of the Thirteenth. July 81, 1864, Gen. Bel- 
knap was assignedto the position. While this general temporarily com- 
manded a division in the pursuit of Hood, in the autumn of '64, the brigade 
was led by Lt.-Col. Abercrombie of the Eleventh, and later by Maj. Pomutz 
of the Fifteenth. Finally, Gen. Belknap being assigned to a division, 
Lt.-Col. Beach of the Eleventh was in temporary command, till brevet Brig. 
Gen. Hickenlooper was assigned to the position, June 17, 1865. 

The brigade joined in the siege of Corinth and, when the Rebels evacua- 
ted, helped garrison the place. June 27th, the Fifteenth was detailed as 
provost guard, Maj. Belknap being provost marshal under Gen. Ord, com- 
manding the post. The brigade was moved to Bolivar, Tenn.. to re-enforce 
Gen. Ross. Considerable reconnoitering took place here. Col. Murphy, in 
Iuka, attacked by the Rebels, sent for re-enforcements, and the Sixteenth 
was detailed from its brigade to form a junction with Rosecrans. It thus 
participated alone in the battle of Iuka, September 19th, where the Fifth 
Iowa so distinguished itself. Of the Sixteenth, Rosecrans says: "The Six- 
teenth Iowa, amid the roar of battle, the rush of wounded artillery horses, 
and a storm of grape, canister and musketry, stood like a rock, holding the 
center." The remainder of the brigade was marched to Corinth September 
13th, while Iuka was being taken by Price. It was then, in its division, 
placed under Ord, to co-operate with Rosecrans in retaking Iuka — thus not 
engaging in that battle, fought by Rosecrans alone. October 3d and 4th, 
the brigade took gallant part in the battle of Corinth, and lost many. (See 
chapter 14.) It joined in the pursuit, returning from Ripley to Corinth. 
Gen. Mc \rthur now succeeded Gen. McKean in command of its division (the 
Sixth). Previous to this, Lt.-Col. Dewey of the Fifteenth had become colonel 
of the 23d Iowa, and Maj. Belknap had succeeded to his place in the regi- 
ment. Adjt. Pomutz, a highly accomplished officer, rendered efficient aid 
as assistant adjutant general, and at the same time as engineer in connect- 
ing and strengthening forts, constructing: short interior lines, etc. October 
2*th, Gen. Hamilton succeeded Gen. Rosecrans in command at Corinth. 
November 2d, Hamilton's command, including the Crocker brigade witb its 
division, joined in Gen. Grant's Mississippi Central railroad campaign. On the 
28th, the Third corps was put in motion for the winter campaign in the 
rear of Vicksburg. December 19th, passing through Oxford, Gen. Grant 
reviewed the division while marching. When the disastrous surrender of 
Holly Springs put an end to the expedition, the brigade guarded the railway 
till January 12, 1863, when it returned to Memphis. It was the coldest 
winter known for years. In the Thirteenth regiment, Maj. Van Hosen had 
resigned January 21st, and was succeeded by Adjt. Jas. Wilson, who was in 
turn succeeded by Lieut. Henry H. Rood. Adjt. Win. T. Clark had been 
promoted assistant adjutant general, and rapidly continued to rise in rank 
until finally brevetted major general. 

January 18, 1863, McArthur's division was embarked to engage in the 
project of connecting Lake Providence with the Mississippi river by canal. 
Gen. McPherson was now placed in command of the Seventeenth army 
corps, to which the divisions of Gen. McArthur and Gen. Quinby, previously 
under Gen. Hamilton, were united. The Crocker brigade (the Third) 
encamped on the north side of Lake Providence, and the work commenced. 
Much sickness ensued. Early in March, the Seventeenth corps was rigidly 
examined by the inspector general. The records of the Fifteenth Iowa met 
with special approbation, from their completeness and correctness. At 






THE CROCKER BRIGADE. 505 

night, on March 16th. the cutting 1 of the dam of the Mississippi was 
announced by minute guns. The waters of the river were twelve feet 
higher than the surface of the lake, and rushed in with a roar like Niagara. 
April 8th, McArthur's division was addressed on the subject of the Presi- 
dent's emancipation proclamation by Generals Thomas, McPherson, McAr- 
thur and Crocker, and Col. Reid. Officers and men generally regarded the 
matter favorably, and the officers of the Crocker brigade transmitted resolu- 
tions of approval to the governor of Iowa. 

The brigade now entered on Grant's Vicksburg campaign. Gen. Crocker 
was in command of a division, and the brigade was nowunderCol. Hall of the 
Eleventh, his regiment being led by Lt.-Col. Abercrombie. Col. Reid of the 
Fifteenth, being promoted brigadier general, was succeeded in his regiment 
by Lt.-Col. Belknap, just returned from staff duty. Joining the Vicksburg 
army, on the left of' McClernand's corps, the brigade participated in heavy 
skirmishing. May 26th, it was ordered on a reconnoitenng expedition to 
Mechanicsville. Returning, the brigade reached Haines' Bluff, the night of 
the 31st Col. Chambers of the Sixteenth now rejoined his command, and 
led the brigade. In the Fifteenth, Maj. Hedrick was now lieutenant colonel, 
and Adjt. Pomutz major. June 4th, the brigade marched to the rear of 
Vicksburg, taking position in the center of McPherson's line. By day it 
furnished heavy details to the skirmish line, and at night to advance the 
trenches. Here the brigade was drawn up to listen to words of cheer from 
Gov. Kirkwood and Adjt. Gen. Baker, visiting their 29 Iowa regiments at 
Vicksburg. June 23d, the brigade was ordered to the Black river line, 
engaged in watching Johnston. It was at the siege of Vicksburg that Lieut. 
Samuel Duffin, Company K, Sixteenth Iowa, was given the gold medal 
designed for the "bravest and best'' soldier of the Seventeenth army corps. 
This brave lieutenant was mortally wounded at Kenesaw Mountain, June 
27, 1864. After the surrender of Vicksburg the brigade performed the im- 
portant duty of guarding the subsistence and ammunition train toward 
Jackson. July 27th, it was ordered to Vicksburg. It engaged about the 
middle of August in the melancholy expedition of Gen. Stevenson to 
Monroe, Louisiana, sharing in the forced marches, the thirst, heat and 
exhaustion of that profitless and painful enterprise. The Eleventh was led 
by Maj. Foster, and the Thirteenth by Maj. Walker. The command 
returned September 3d. After this there followed occasional minor expe- 
ditions. 

In January, 1864, the four regiments became by re-enlistment veteran reg- 
iments. They participated in the Meridian raid of Gen. Sherman, and in 
the spring went home to Iowa on veteran furlough. During their absence 
from the field, the non-veterans of the brigade were formed into the Iowa 
Battalion of the Seventeenth corps under Maj. Geo. Pomutz of the Fifteenth, 
with officers detailed from each regiment. It went to Cairo and garrisoned 
Mound City and then, with strong re-enforcements, joined in the expedition 
under Gen. Gresham to Clifton, on the Tennessee river. It arrived at Hunts- 
ville, Alabama, May 20th, having in charge 900 cattle for Sherman's army. 
Here the brigade was reunited. Maj. Pomutz became corps provost marshal 
on the staff of Gen. Frank P. Blair, now commanding Seventeenth army 
corps, Gen. McPherson being placed in command of the Department and 
Army of the Tennessee. The Crocker brigade was now the Third under 
Col. Hall, of the Fourth division, Gen. Crocker. 

The Atlanta campaign opened. This gallant brigade took conspicuous 
and distinguished part in that long series of battles. (Described in chapter 
25.) In the hot battle of July 22d the brave Sixteenth was captured and 
with it the greater part of four detached companies of the Thirteenth. The 
men suffered imprisonment at Andersonville, though the greater part were 
exchanged in two months. The officers remained much longer. The 
brigade joined in pursuit of Hood. October 10th, the Fifteenth was detailed 
to escort the corps supply train of 247 wagons by way of Allatoona and 
Kingston to the Army of the Tennessee. November 15th, the brigade 



506 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



started with the army on the " March to the Sea." There was attached to 
it the Thirty-second Illinois. Arrived in the vicinity of Savannah, the 
brigade with its division was engaged in fisrhting before the city was entered. 
(See chapter 27.) Then Fort McAllister fell, and Commodore Dahlgren's 
boats arrived bringing subsistence, heavy guns and the first mail for six 
weeks. 

January 6, 1865, the brigade left Savannah with the army for the North. 
This difficult march, with the gallant part taken by the Crocker brigade is 
described in chapter 31. February 16th, the army, neai'ing the Congaree 
river, saw Columbia lifting herself proudly on the heights of the opposite 
bank. The Thirteenth Iowa, under its lieutenant colonel, J. C. Kennedy, 
enjoyed the honor of being the first to hoist the Stars and Stripes over the 
capital of South Carolina, where the first banner of secession had been 
unfurled to the breeze. This regiment had succeeded in the daring enter- 
prise of making irregular entrance into the city about three hours before the 
formal entrance of our troops. At Goldsboro the command was reviewed by 
Gen. Sherman, with Generals Schofield and Terry of the eastern army. In 
the Fifteenth regiment, Lt.-Col. Hedrick, absent from wounds received at 
Atlanta, was mustered in as colonel, Maj. Pomutz as lieutenant colonel and 
Capt. Porter as major. At Raleigh the troops were again reviewed by Gen. 
Sherman, in presence of Gen. Grant. April '29th, Sherman's army was 
started north. In Washington, May 24th, the brave Iowa brigade was a 
conspicuous feature at the grand review. June 1st, the Army of the Ten- 
nessee was ordered to Louisville, and July 14th, Gen. Sherman reviewed the 
troops and bade them farewell. During the same month the different regi- 
ments of the brigade were mustered out of the service in which their bravery 
and fidelity had shone so conspicuously. 

In the Thirteenth regiment, its first colonel, Marcellus M. Crocker, so distin- 
guished and beloved, was made brigadier general November 29, 1862. Col. 
Jas. Wilson was brevetted brigadier general March 13, 1865. In the 
Fifteenth, Hugh T. Reid, first 'colonel, became brigadier general March 13, 

1863. Win. W. Belknap, first major, was made brigadier general July 30, 

1864, brevet major general March 14, 1865, and Secretary of War in Gen. 
Grant's cabinet, 1869. John M. Hedrick, captain, was brevetted brigadier 
general March 13, 1865. Lt.-Col. Geo. Pomutz was also brevetted brigadier 
general. In the Sixteenth, Col. Chambers was brevetted brigadier general, 
and Col. Sanders on March 16, 1865. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Eleventh Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 



Abraham M. Hare. 
Wm. Hall. 

John C. Abercrombie. 
Benjamin Beach. 



MAJORS. 



SURGEONS. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Wm. Hall. 

John C. Abercrombi*. 

Chas. Foster. 

John 0. Marven. 



Wm. Watson. 
John G. Miller. 



(John S. Whittlesey. 
Chauncey H. Remiug- 
ton. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



Wm. Hall. 

John C. Abercrombie. 

Benj. Beach. 

John C. Marven. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



Cornelius Oadle, Jr. 
Oliver D. Kinsman. 
John G. Safley. 
Frederick P. Oandee. 



Frederick Lloyd. 
John G. Miller. 
D. P. Johnson. 
J. C. Batdorf. 
Frederick Meyer. 
Joseph D. Miles. 
J. R. Duncan. 



QUARTERMASTERS . 



Richard Cadle. 
Henry Le Jarboe. 



THE TWELFTH INFANTRY. 



507 



Field and Staff Officers of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Marcellus M. Crocker. 
John Shane. 
James Wilson. 


John Shane. 
Geo. M. Van Hosen. 
Jas. Wilson. 
Wm. A. Walker. 
Thos. P. Marshall. 
Alonzo J. Pope. 


Joseph McKee. 
Moses W. Thomas. 


John Steele. 
John Elrod. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



Milton M. Price. 
John Shane. 
Jas. Wilson. 
Justin C. Kennedy. 



Wm. T. Clark. 
Jas. Wilson. 
Henry H. Rood. 
Chas. A. Myers. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



Jas. H. Boucher. 
Seneca B. Thrall. 
John C. Morrison. 
J. D. McCleery. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



Horatio Gr. Barner. 
Stephen Purdy. 
Richard Kennedy. 
Newel C. Keyes. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Hugh T. Reid. 
Wm. W. Belknap. 
John M. Hedrick. 


W. W. Belknap. 
Wm. T. Cunningham. 
John M. Hedrick. 
Geo. Pomutz. 
Jas. S. Porter. 


Wm. H. Burnham. 
Saml. B. Davis. 
Wm. H. Gibbon. 


Wm. W. Estabrook. 
Ensign H. King. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Wm. Dewey. 
Wm. W. Belknap. 
John M. Hedrick. 
Geo. Pomutz. 


Geo. Pomutz. 
Ensign H. King. 
Wm. C. Stidger. 


Wm. H. Gibbon. 
Wm. W. Nelson. 
Hezekiah Fisk. 
John C. Johnson. 


John M. Hedrick. 
Mortimer A. Higley. 
John D. Shannon. 
Elisha W. Elliott. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Sixteenth Iowa Infantry . 



MAJORS. 



SURGEONS. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Alex. Chambers. 
Josiah T. Herbert. 



Wm. Pin-cell. 
John Henry Smith. 
Josiah T. Herbert. 
Peter Miller. 
John F. Conyngham. 



Jacob H. Camburn. 
j Frederick Lloyd. 
Josiah L. Phillips. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



Addison H. Sanders 
John H. Smith. 
Josiah T. Heroert. 
Peter Miller. 



|Gao. E. McCosh. 
I Geo. Lawrence. 
Ijosiah T. Herbert, 
loiiver Asson. 



I Josiah L. Phillips. iChas. W. Tracker, 

p. C. McNeil. Fred. Hope, Jr. 

Freeman McClelland. I Smith Spore. 

Qixon Alexander. I 



TWELFTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was organized at Dubuque in October and November, 1861 , 
and mustered into the service Nov. 25th, with Joseph J. Woods, a West 
Point graduate, and of military experience, as colonel, John P. Coulter, 
lieutenant colonel, and S. D. Brodtbeck, major. It was sent to St. Louis. 
In the winter, the regiment suffered severely from sickness, about 75 dying. 
Jan. 27th, it was ordered to report to Gen. Grant at Cairo, 111. There, it 
was sent to the mouth of the Cumberland river, and established its camp in 
the field. Feb. 5th, it joined the expedition against Fort Henry. It fin- 
ished its hard march just in time to see the Rebels retreating toward Fort 
Donelson. Feb. 12th, the regiment was assigned to Cook's brigade, Smith's 
division, and ordered to Fort Donelson. It was engaged in the front line 
in the battles of Feb. loth, 14th and loth, fighting gallantly. (See chapter 
10.) After the surrender, the regiment remained in the fort till March l^th, 



50S IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

when it moved to Pittsburg Landing. It was now brigaded together with 
the Second, Seyenth and Fourteenth Iowa, under Col. J. M. Tuttle of the 
Second. Gen. W. H. L. Wallace commanded the division. In the sanguin- 
ary battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, the Twelfth fought desperately. 
(See chapter 12.) Entirely surrounded, it was, with the Fourteenth and 
Eighth, compelled to surrender about sundown. Col. Woods was left upon 
the field severely wounded. Capt. Edgington had taken his place. A pain- 
ful captivity of nearly eight months followed. Officers of the rank of cap- 
tain and upward were imprisoned at Selma, Ala., and the remainder, with 
the men, in wretched prisons in various parts of the state. About half of 
the men were paroled in May and sent to St. Louis. The remainder, with 
the officers, were only paroled and united at St. Louis late in November, 
their ranks thinned and enfeebled by the sufferings of prison life. The 
record of the members of the regiment who from various causes had escaped 
capture at Shiloh, will be found in the sketch of the Union brigade. In the 
latter part of March, 1863, all of the Twelfth were re-assembled at St. 
Louis, and reorganized under Col. Woods, Lt.-Col. Coulter and Maj. Brodt- 
beck having resigned. S. R. Edgington was made lieutenant colonel and J. 
H. Stibbs major. 

April 9, I860, the Twelfth was ordered to join in the Vicksburg cam- 
paign. Brigaded with the Eighth and Thirty-fifth Iowa infantry as the 
Third brigade, under Col. Matthies of the Fifth, it was assigned to the 
Third division, Brig. Gen. Tuttle commanding, and the Fifteenth army 
corps under Gen. Sherman. With this command the regiment marched 
from Duckport, La., May 2, 1863, to Jackson, Miss., where it engaged in the 
battle of May 14th, resulting in the capture of the city. After the destruc- 
tion of railroads and rebel property, the march for Vicksburg was resumed, 
Gen. Sherman's corps taking position May 18th. The regiment was 
engaged in the assaults of the 19th and 22d of May. (See chapter 18.) 
June 22d, it was sent to the line of Black river to guard against Johnston. 
After the fall of Vicksburg, July 4th, the regiment joined in the siege of Jack- 
son, which ended by the enemy's evacuatingthe city. It was in the pursuit 
and in the skirmish at Brandon. The regiment went into camp on Black 
river, July 25th. Here Lt.-Col. Edgington of the Twelfth having resigned, 
Maj . John H. Stibbs was appointed to his place, Capt. Van Duzee of Company 
I being appointed to the majority. Oct. 15th, the regiment was in an expe- 
dition to Brownsville, Miss. November 7th, it embarked for Memphis. 
Here its division, the Third, was detached from the Fifteenth army corps 
and assigned as First division under Brig. Gen. Tuttle, to the Sixteenth 
army corps under Maj. Gen. Hurlbut. Its brigade, the Third, was placed 
under the command of Col. J. L. Gecldes of the Eighth Iowa. The division 
was assigned to guard duty on the railroad, the Twelfth Iowa being stationed 
at Chewalla, Tenn. The re-enlistment of the men took place at Christmas 
time. The skirmish of Goose creek transpired early in the morning of 
December 29th. Companies I and G, commanded by Capt. Sumbardo of the 
former, surrounded, surprised and captured 19 of the Rebels who were enjoy- 
ing themselves at a dance. Our detachment sustained no loss. The enemy 
had 1 killed and 4 wounded, and among the captured were a captain and 
lieutenant. The railroad from Corinth to Memphis was abandoned Feb. 1, 
1864. The Twelfth now joined its command at Vicksburg, to enter on Gen. 
Sherman's Meridian raid. Arriving too late, it went into camp on Black 
river. In March, Col. Woods proceeded to Iowa with the veterans of his 
regiment to receive furlough. 

Reassembling at Davenport, April 22d, the veterans started south and 
went into camp near Memphis. On the 14th, six companies under Lt.-Col. 
Stibbs were ordered to the north of White river, Ark., as garrison. On the 
28th, four of these companies were ordered to return, leaving two at the 
post. About the middle of June, the veterans of the regiment were joined 
by the non-veterans, who had been engaged in the Red river campaign 
under Gen. A. J. Smith. They had served in the entire expedition, had 



THE TWELFTH INFANTRY. 509 

been in the battle of Old River Lake, where the Rebels were defeated, and 
had lost a number in killed and wounded. 

The Twelfth was now assigned to its old place in the Third brigade, First 
division. Sixteenth army corps ; Gen. Woods commanding the brigade, Gen. 
Mower the division, and Maj.-Gen. A. J. Smith the right wing of the corps. 
With this command the regiment started June 1G, 1864, on an expedition 
through Mississippi. On July 6th, the army turned from the railway and 
marched to the vicinity of Tupelo. Here, in continued righting on the 13th, 
14th and 15th of July, 1S64, the Twelfth distinguished itself anew by its 
valor and endurance. Lt.-Col. Stibbs commanded. (See chapter 29). The 
regiment returned to Memphis July 22d, and in a week started for Holly 
Springs. Lt.-Col. Stibbs took command of that post and remained there 
with his regiment. During incessant rain, Companies A and F, which had 
distinguished themselves by a most gallant defense of their post at the 
mouth of White river, Arkansas, arrived to rejoin the regiment. Com- 
manded by Capt. Hunter, their post had been attacked at daylight on June 
22d, by from 400 to 600 of Marmaduke's men. Springing half dressed to 
arms, at the alarm, they were met by a bold and spirited attack of the 
assailants. Protecting themselves behind their slight stockade, the little 
garrison of about 40 repulsed the enemy, he leaving 20 killed and mortally 
wounded on the field. The garrison lost 1 killed and 4 wounded. Capt. 
Hunter and his command were highly complimented. 

The Twelfth returned to Memphis August 23d. September 1st, Mower's 
division, including the Twelfth, was ordered to the White river, to clear out 
rebel blockading. This force proceeded to Duval's Bluff, disembarked Sep- 
tember 7th, and started northward in pursuit of Price and his forces who 
were invading Missouri. It marched via Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Jef- 
ferson City, and westward in pursuit of Price to Harnsonville, Missouri, 
where the infantry abandoned the pursuit. October 30th it turned back, 
arriving at Jefferson Barracks November 15. According to Maj. Samuel G. 
Knes's official history, the regiment had marched within thirty days 543 
miles; within two months 879 miles, and since June 16th, 1,409 miles. 
November 23d, the regiment embarked for Nashville, Tennessee, arriving 
December 1st, and taking position in Gen. Thomas's line of defense. 
November 24, 1864, the original term of enlistment having expired, the non- 
veterans, including Col. Woods and all but four of the line officers, fell out of 
the service and were honorably mustered out December 1st. In tlie battle 
of Nashville of the 15th and 16th of December, the regiment, commanded 
by Lt.-Col. Stibbs, was gallantly engaged on the front line, and conspicuous 
for valor. (See chapter 28.) Its brigade commander. Col. S. G. Hill of the 
Thirty-fifth Iowa, was killed. It followed in pursuit of Hood to Clifton, on 
the Tennessee river, arriving there January 2, 1865. It now proceeded with 
the Sixteenth corps to Eastport, Mississippi, where the men were ordered to 
erect winter quarters. Here Lt.-Col. Stibbs went to Washington City in the 
service of the government. Capt. Samuel G. Knee was promoted major, 
assumed command of the regiment, and retained it during the remainder of 
its service. The only rations issued to the regiment during part of the time 
in this camp consisted of corn in the ear. 

February 6th, the Sixteenth army corps was ordered to report to Gen. 
Canby, in preparation for the Mobile campagn. The regiment, with its brig- 
ade, arrived at New Orleans, February 25th. March 5th, it proceeded to 
Dauphin Island, and thence against Spanish Fort, Alabama, which place 
was invested March 27th. The regiment was in the front line during the 
siege. (Described in chapter 32.) April 12th, Mobile was evacuated, and 
the Sixteenth corps was ordered to Montgomery, Alabama. Here came the 
first news of the surrender of Gen. Lee. May 11th, the Twelfth was ordered 
to Selma, Alabama, to remain on garrison duty through the summer. The 
Sixteenth army corps was discontinued August 8th, and the troops assigned 
to duty in the district of Montgomery. Still the welcome order to return 
home did not come to the Twelfth. September 23d, it was ordered to the 



510 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



district of Talladega, and December 26th. to Memphis. January 23, 1866, 
was the joyful day of mustering- out, and the Twelfth was ordered to Daven- 
port, Iowa, for final pay and discharge, thus closing its chequered and brill- 
iant military career. Col. John H. Stibbs was later brevetted brigadier 
general. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 



MAJORS. 



SURGEONS. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Joseph J. Woods. 
John H. Stibbs. 



Saml. D. Brodtbeck. 
Saml. R. Edgington. 
John H. Stibbs. 
Ed. M. Van Duzee. 
Saml. G. Knee. 
David W. Reed. 



Chas. C. Parker. 
Sanford W. Huff. 



Albert G. Eberheart. 
Fred. Humphrey. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



John P. Coulter. 
Saml. R. Edgington. 
John H. Stibbs. 
Saml. G. Knee. 



Nathaniel E. Duncan. 
Sylvester R. Burch. 



Wm. H. Finley. 
Myron Underwood. 
Edwin Kirkup. 
iJames Barr. 



Joseph B. Dorr. 
Geo. H. Morrisey. 
Homer C. Morehead. 



FOURTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into service at Davenport, November 6, 
1861. Somewhat previous to this date, three of its companies, A, B and C, 
were detached and sent to Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, to perform gar- 
rison duty. Though for a long time technically a part of the Fourteenth 
regiment, they were never under command of its colonel, and were 
eventually formally detached from the regiment, which organized other 
companies in their stead. The three original companies eventually became 
a part of the Seventh cavalry regiment. Wm. T. Shaw was made colonel of 
the Fourteenth. He had served as a volunteer in the Second Kentucky 
during the Mexican War. Edward W. Lucas was lieutenant colonel and 
Hiram Leonard major. In the last of April the regiment left for St. Louis. 
February 5, 1862, it embarked for Fort Henry. At Cairo, it had seen our 
victorious gunboats on their way to Fort Donelson. Arrived at Fort Henry, 
it took up the line of march for Fort Donelson, and participated in the battle 
of Fort Donelson, February 13th, 14th and 15th. (Described in chapter 10.) 
March 7th, it embarked for Pittsburg Landing. 

In the battle of Shiloh, April 6th, brigaded with the Second, Seventh and 
Twelfth Iowa, the brigade led by Col. Tuttle of the Second, it was one of the 
devoted regiments that fought on, till surrounded and cut off, it was com- 
pelled to surrender at sundown. (See chapter 12.) The captured officers 
and men were held prisoners in the South until the following autumn. 
October 12, 1862, they were released on parole and sent to St. Louis, 
where, November 19th, they were declared exchanged. Here they were 
joined by the members of the regiment who had escaped capture, most 
of whom had served since Shiloh in the Union Brigade. (See sketch of 
same.) A reorganization now took place. April 10, 1863, the Four- 
teenth embarked for Cairo, and on June 22d, for Columbus, Kentucky. 
Here, the chances of war kept the regiment in irksome performance of 
garrison duty for seven months, officers and men longing to share the 
active campaign of Vicksburg with their comrades of Donelson and Shiloh. 
January 22, 1864, the regiment left for Vicksburg, well prepared by effi- 
cient drill for action in the field. It was assigned to the Second brigade, 
Third division, Sixteenth army corps, Col. Shaw commanding the brigade. 
It took part in the month of February in the famous Meridian raid under 
Gen. Sherman. Lt.-Col. Newbold was in command of the regiment. 
Returning to Vicksburg, Gen. A. J. Smith's command, beiug two divisions 



THE FOURTEENTH INFANTRY. 511 

of the Sixteenth corps, one of them the Third, was immediately ordered 
to assist in the Red river expedition under Gen. Banks. Proceeding up 
the tied river to the Atchafalaya, Col. Shaw's brigade, including the Four- 
teenth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-second Iowa and Twenty-fourth Missouri, 
was conspicuous for gallantry at Bayou de Glaize, and at the successful 
assault of Fort de Russey. At Alexandria, Gen. Banks was concentrating 
his forces, preparatory to moving on Shreveport, and took the campaign 
under his direct command. It proved a melancholy series of failures, the 
brilliant episode of Fort de Russey not being repeated. 

April 9th, Pleasant Hill was fought— and desperately fought. Col. 
Shaw's brigade met the greatest shock of the battle, and bore itself with 
unflinching endurance and marvelous courage. Lt.-Col Newbold of the 
Fourteenth was slain. On the following day Gen. Banks began a retreat, 
Gen. Smith with his troops continuing to the Mississippi. The retreat was 
harassed by the enemy, there being much skirmishing and some loss on our 
side. At Centerville, April 23d, the Fourteenth had 4 wounded, and at 
Moore's Plantation, May 5th to 7th, 3. May 18th, at the battle of Yellow 
Bayou, the Fourteenth, commanded by Capt. L. A. Crane, lost 12 wounded 
and 1 killed. The promptitude of the officers commanding the Fourteenth, 
Twenty-seventh ancf Thirty-second Iowa regiments secured the safety of the 
army, says Col Shaw. The regiment with its command was in the battle of 
Lake Chicot, Arkansas, June 6, 1864, and arrived at Memphis June 10th. 

Gen. Smith's army started now on an expedition into Mississippi, against 
Forrest and Lee. At Tupelo, where the Twelfth Iowa so distinguished 
itself in the battle of the 12th, 13th and 14th of July, the Fourteenth, being 
with its brigade assigned to duty as train guard, did not actively participate; 
but being under fire, lost on the 14th of July, 2 killed and 2 wounded. It 
participated at Town Creek on the 15th. (See chapter 29.) The Fourteenth 
now returned to Memphis, and after a few weeks marched into Mississippi 
again as far as Oxford, occasionally skirmishing with the enemy. It returned 
again to Memphis, and went after a time with its command to Cairo. Thence 
Gen. Smith was ordered to St. Louis to aid in repelling Price. A detach- 
ment of four companies of the regiment was taken to Pilot Knob to re-en- 
force Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr., in command of that post. After two days' 
defense, the post was blown up, and Gen. Ewing, cutting his way through 
the enemy, retreated with his force to Rolla, lighting on the way. The 
part of the regiment not at Pilot Knob, engaged in the meantime in chasing 
Price across Missouri. The regiment reassembled at St. Louis November 2d. 
Not enough re-enlistments having taken place to enable it to retain its 
organization as a veteran regiment, it returned to Davenport and was mus- 
tered out of the service. Thus passed out of existence one of Iowa's best regi- 
ments. Two companies remaining of veterans and recruits whose time had 
not expired, they were formed into the "Residuary Battalion," moved to 
Springfield, Illinois, and performed guard and provost duty till after the close 
ot the war. In August, 1865, the battalion was honorably mustered out of 
service. 

In reading the military record of Col. Shaw, it would be naturally expected 
that he should rise to a high rank in the service he so adorned by his mili- 
tary merit. But on a charge preferred by superior officers our government 
dismissed him from the service in the autumn of 1864, while in command of 
a division. The cause of enmity was a letter of his, indiscreetly pub- 
lished, reflecting in strong language on the management of the Red river 
campaign, amid whose sombre reverses the deeds of himself and the Iowa 
men threw the only lights. The government, seeing later its injustice, 
revoked Col. Shaw's dismissal, making it an honorable mustering out, to 
date with that of his regiment. 



512 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEON. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Wm. T. Shaw. 


Hiram Leonard. 
Leander C. Noble. 
Wm. W. Kirkwood. 
Edgar A. Warner. 


Geo. M. Staples. 


Saml. A. Benton. 
Frederick F. Kiner. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANT. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTER. 


Edward W. Lucas. 
Jas. H. Newbold. 
Warren C. Jones. 


Noah Noble Tynor. 


Saml. N. Pierce. 
John H. Stephens. 
Shadrack Haskins. 


Clinton C. Buell. 



THE SEVENTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Keokuk, April 16, 1862. 
John W. Rankin was made colonel, David B. Hillis, lieutenant colonei, and 
Samuel A. Wise, major. It was sent to St. Louis, and embarked May 5fch 
for Hamburg Landing, Tenn. From here it joined the army engaged in the 
siege of Corinth. May 28th, the regiment was occupied in an affair of two 
hours, with the intent of developing the strength and plans of the enemy. 
Corinth was evacuated the next day, and the Seventeenth joined in the pur- 
suit to Booneville, Miss., then retracing its steps to Corinth, where it went 
into camp on Clear Creek. June 27th, the regiment left camp on a scout in 
the direction of Holly Springs, Miss. At Ripley it received orders to return, 
and arrived at Clear Creek July 1st. August 15th, it marched to Jacinto. 
Here, making occasional scouts into the vicinity, it remained till September 
18th, when it marched toward luka. 

September 19th, the regiment took part in the battle of luka. In this, its 
first battle, it was commanded by Col. Rankin, whose resignation, previously 
offered, had not taken effect. He furnished no report of the part taken by 
his regiment in this engagement. The Seventeenth had the misfortune here 
to incur the censure of Gen. Rosecrans, but it is believed that this censure 
was unjust. Col. Wever, later commanding the regiment, in his official his- 
tory of the same, says: "The regiment conducted itself in a manner of 
which all engaged feel as truly proud as of any subsequent engagement." 
Capt. Stuart, in "Iowa Colonels, 1 ' states that confusion in the regiment was 
caused by a portion of Rosecraus's body guatd. These, in reconnoitering in 
front, being surprised and alarmed by the terrible fire which met them, rode 
hurriedly back and dashed through the lines of the Seventeenth Towa, drawn 
up across the road, knocking down and injuring several men. This separa- 
ted the regiment. About the same juncture, Col. Rankin's horse, being- 
wounded and unmanageable, threw his rider against the roots of a tree, where 
he lay insensible, supposed to be dead, till late that night. L. D. Ingersoll, 
in " Iowa and the Rebellion," says: "The censure of Gen. Rosecrans was 
unjust; for, though the regiment was thrown into confusion, it was because 
of the break-neck stampede through its lines of the general commanding, 
himself, and his prodigious staff." The Seventeenth joined in the pursuit, 
returning to Jacinto and remaining until October 2d, when it marched to 
Corinth. 

On the 3d and 4th of October, the regiment, led by Col. Banbury of the 
Fifth, participated in the battle of Corinth, winning high distinction for its 
daring fighting, capturing the colors of the Fortieth Mississippi, and elicit- 
ing from Gen. Rosecrans the following congratulatory order: "The general 
commanding cannot forbear to give pleasure to many, besides the brave men 
immediately concerned, by announcing, in advance of the regular orders, 
that the Seventeenth Iowa infantry, by its gallantry in the battle of Cor- 
inth, on the 4th of October, charging the enemy and capturing the flag of 
the Fortieth Mississippi, has amply atoned for its misfortune at luka, and 



THE SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY. 513 

stands among the honored regiments of his command. Long may they wear 
with increasing brightness the honors they have won." The regiment 
joined in pursuing the enemy. Arrived at Corinth October 14th, it went 
into camp and prepared winter quarters, but, November 2d, was ordered to 
take up line of march. It arrived, via Grand Junction and Davis Mills, at 
Moscow, Tenn. While here, the regiment had charge of a forage train of 
175 wagons, which were loaded in the enemy's lines and brought safely back 
to Moscow. November 30th, in Gen. Grant's first effort against Vicksburg, 
march was resumed toward Grenada, crossing the Tallahatchie river and 
pressing closely the Rebels who retreated daily, skirmishing with our 
advance. The regiment remained on the Yohnapatafa river on heavy picket 
duty till December 21st. The expedition having been abandoned, the Sev- 
enteenth Iowa was ordered to Holly Springs. December 26th, with its 
division, it went to Memphis with a supply train of 625 wagons to procure 
food for the needy army. Guerrillas harassed the way. Arriving at Mem- 
phis on the 29th, on the 31st the division started back with the loaded train. 
At Collierville, Tenn., it was relieved, and the Seventeenth Iowa was 
assigned to duty at Bray's Station, guarding railroad. From Helena, 
March 22d, it engaged in the Yazoo Pass expedition, returning to Helena 
April 11th. 

April 17th, the regiment embarked on the last and successful Vicksburg 
campaign, reaching Grand Gulf May 1st. It arrived at Port Gibson just 
after the battle, and engaged in pursuit of the enemy. It approached Ray- 
mond on the 12th, in time to participate in the close of the engagement. 
May 14th, it led with its brigade the advance toward Jackson. When the 
battle opened, the Seventeenth joined in a gallant charge, before which the 
Rebels fled through the city which our troops entered. The Seventeenth 
lost heavily. The next day our force marched toward Vicksburg. At Clin- 
ton, the Seventeenth was detached to remain for picket and personal guard 
duty for Gen. Grant, at his headquarters, but early the next morning, May 
16th, the booming of cannon announced the opening of the battle of Cham- 
pion Hills. Gen. Grant ordered the Seventeenth on, and it hastily marched 
for the front. In this hot contest, the regiment was distinguished for its 
bravery, and lost heavily. (See chapter 18.) It was left to bury the dead 
and care for the wounded, while our army pursued the enemy. It was then 
ordered, May 20th, to Vicksburg, and participated in the assault of the 22d. 

June 26th, it was one of the two regiments designated, in its division, to 
assist Gen. Logan's division in holding and defending Fort Hill, now mined 
and in readiness for blowing up. It was blown up early in the afternoon, 
destroying the center of the fort, which was immediately occupied by troops 
of Gen. Logan. 

These, within a few feet of the enemy, maintained a peculiar contest in 
the effort to expel them. Eleven o'clock at night came, the time for the 
Seventeenth to enter and carry on the fight, which it did till two in the morn- 
ing. Half of the regiment sat on the broken parapet, reaching over and aim- 
ing down at the enemy, within six or eight feet of them, while the other 
half loaded and handed them the guns. The Rebels threw many hand gren- 
ades which exploded, wounding and killing in a fearful manner. In these 
three hours, the Seventeenth lost 37 men killed and wounded. 

On the fall of Vicksburg, July 4th, the regiment camped in that city until 
September 9th, when it was ordered to re-enforce Gen. Steele, operating 
against Little Rock, Arkansas. On arriving at Helena, information being 
received of the occupation of Little Rock by the federal force, the regiment 
awaited orders to rejoin its corps, the Seventeenth, at Vicksburg. September 
29th, orders were received to proceed to Memphis and there join Sherman's 
Fifteenth corps that was preparing for the Chattanooga campaign. October 
12th, the Seventeenth, with its new command, started for Chattanooga, arriv- 
ing November 19th. On the 25th, the regiment was engaged at the battle of 
Mission Ridge, and the next day joined in the pursuit. (See chapter 21.) 

I. W. T.— 33 



514 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



December 2d, the regiment marched to Bridgeport, Ala. On the 22d, it was 
again on the march to Huntsville, Ala., where it was engaged in an occasional 
scout, and in guarding large forage trains, collecting grain and other prod- 
ucts for shipment to the rest of the army corps and to the Army of the 
Cumberland. February 1, 1864, Col. Wever was appointed to take charge 
of the post at Huntsville, and the regiment performed provost duty. April 
1st, the veteran re-enlistment took place. Nearly all re-enlisted, but the 
Seventeenth was so thinned in its ranks that the number was barely suffi- 
cient to enable it to retain its organization. 

In June, the regiment, being on its way to join its division, concentrating 
to be taken to the front, was met at Kingston by the order to proceed to 
Tilton, a place on the railroad on the line of Gen. Sherman's communications. 
It reached there July 2d, and under Lt.-Col. Archer passed the summer 
patrolling the fifteen miles of railway between Dalton and Resaca. In the 
first of October Gen. Hood, operating offensively against Gen. Sherman's 
line of communications, after being defeated at Allatoona by Gen. Corse, 
turned and directed the corps of L^e on Resaca, that of Cheatham on Dalton, 
and that of Stewart on Tilton. Then followed the attack on Tilton and the 
capture of the brave Seventeenth. (See chapter 28.) Col. Wever of the 
Seventeenth, commanding a brigade at Resaca, was enabled to hold his post. 

In the winter of 1864-5, Col. Wever accompanied to Iowa on veteran fur- 
lough the little band remaining of the Seventeenth. They numbered 45. The 
pathetic scene of their reception at Keokuk is thus given by the Gate City : 

" There were few of them. Their battle flag was worn and faded, and 
torn by bullets, and still it waved in front of them, and still the noble few 
clustered round it." 

After the expiration of their furlough, under Col. Wever, they wentby way 
of New York and joined Sherman's forces at Savannah, from which point they 
participated in the perilous march northward, and joined in the grand 
review at VVashing'ton. 

Col. Wever was brevetted brigadier general February 9, 1865. Col. Hillis 
was also made brigadier general by brevet. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry. 





COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. CHAPLAIN. 


John W. Rankin. 
David Burke Hillis. 
Clark Russell Wever. 
Sampson M. Archer. 


Samuel M. Wise. 
Sampson M. Archer. 
John F. Waldea. 
Wm. Horner. 
Harry M. Kenderdine. 


Nathan Udell. 
Jacob H. Ealj . 
Christopher C. Biser. 


Wm. Wilson. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


David B. Hillis. 
Clark R. Wever. 
Sampson M. Archer. 
Wm. Horner. 


Southwick Guthrie. 
Fletcher Woolsey. 
Geo. A. Jones. 


Ed. J. McGorrisk. 
Christ. C. Biser. 
Wm. F. Coleman. 
Wm. D. Barclay. 


Edwin J. Aldrich. 
David N. Gorgas. 



EIGHTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was organized at Clinton, Iowa, and mustered into the service 
August 6, 1862. John Edwards, a man of state prominence, and an aide to 
the governor, was made colonel, Thos. Z. Cook was lieutenant colonel, and 
Hugh J. Campbell major. Like the Seventeenth, this regiment was received 
by the United States government by specia 1 order, the Sixteenth having com- 
pleted the quota of Iowa under the President's call for 300,000. August 11th. 
the Eighteenth was sent to Sedal ia. Mo., and from there ordered to Springfield, 
where it arrived September 13th. There Gen. Schofield organized the Array of 
the Frontier, and the Eighteenth Iowa was assigned to the First brigade, Col. 
Husted of the Seventh Missouri calvary commanding, and to the Second 



THE EIGHTEENTH INFANTKY. 515 

division, Brig. Gen. Totten commanding. Gen. Schofield now proceeded to 
operate against the enemy in southwestern Missouri. There was a rapid 
pursuit of the Rebels to Fayetteville, Arkansas, with frequent skirmishing, 
during which the regiment lost 1 kdled and 3 wounded. The Army of the 
Frontier returning to Missouri, the Eighteenth was ordered again to Spring- 
field, arriving November 14th. The young regiment having been thus 
rudely initiated into campaigning, without previous experience, lost heavily 
by exposure and fatigue. Measles also broke out, so that during the cam- 
paign, from both exposure and disease, it lost 90 men. 

The winter passed monotonously at Springfield, but on January 8, 1863, 
the Eighteenth Iowa, aided by a few hundred militia, distinguished itself by a 
conspicuously gallant defense against 3,500 Rebels under Marmaduke. (See 
chapter '20.) The regiment still remained at Springfield on garrison duty. 
In April of 1863, Col. Edwards was placed for a time in command of the 
post. During spring and summer, portions of the regiment under Maj. 
Campbell made three marches of 110 miles each, two of them forced. In 
the last of the marches, the regiment was ordered to Cassville, Missouri, to 
co-operate in heading off the retreat of Shelby, who had invaded Missouri 
and penetrated nearly to the Missouri river. October 9th, Springfield being 
in danger, part of the regiment was ordered back by forced marches. October 
16th, Companies D and F, under command of Capt. Ray, marched from Cass- 
ville to Fayetteville as escort to a supply train. At Cross Timbers they were 
attacked by 500 of the enemy who were routed with loss after a sharp contest. 
Col. Edwards was now in command of the District of Southwest Missouri. He 
pursued Shelby, who was making a raid into the state, and October 17th, at 
the head of his regiment, excepting Companies D and F, continued the pur- 
suit into Arkansas, forming a part of the force under command of Brig. Gen. 
John McNeil. October 31, 1863, he arrived with his force at Fort Smith, 
Arkansas, they having marched night and day in the vigorous pursuit, ford- 
ing deep streams and crossing the Boston Mountains. Here the Eighteenth 
was again placed on garrison duty. 

In December, Col. Edwards was placed in command of the post, and in 
January, 1864, was put in command of a brigade composed of the Eighteenth 
Iowa, Second Kansas cavalry, First Arkansas infantry, and the Second 
Indiana battery. Soon after, the Second Arkansas infantry was substituted 
for the Second Kansas cavalry in this brigade. In January, 1864, an attack 
was threatened upon a supply train bound for Little Rock and guarded by a 
detachment of the Eighteenth Iowa under Capt. Clover. A portion of the 
regiment under Lt.-3ol. Campbell was sent January 2d to re-enforce him. 
It returned January 8th to Fort Smith, after marching seventy-five miles in 
the depth of winter, through six inches of snow, without tents or shelter. The 
remainder of the winter was spent in excessive labor in fatigue, escort and 
guard duty, all on half rations. 

March 22, 1864, the Eighteenth, commanded by Capt. Duncan, moved 
with the Third division, under Gen. Thayer, to join Gen. Steele. This 
general was moving on Camden, Arkansas, with the Seventh army corps to 
co-operate with Gen. Banks in the Red River expedition. Col. Edwards 
commanded the First brigade. The junction with Steele was made at 
Elkins' Ferry. (The campaign is described in chapter 24.) The regiment 
participated in the various battles of the campaign. April 18th, in a des- 
perate encounter at Poison Springs, the Eighteenth fought with a bravery 
and determination never exceeded. 

May 15, 1864, the regiment returned to Fort Smith, having marched 730 
miles through swamps and over mountains, wading whole days and nights in 
mud and water, and having part of the time only raw corn for rations. An 
official history of this regiment, by Col. Hugh J. Campbell, shows a record 
of endurance, privation and hardship almost incredible. The life at Fort 
Smith during the remaining summer and the autumn of 1864, and the 
ensuing winter, was a variation of severe marches, with intervals employed 
in severe labor on the fortifications and heavy guard duty. Plenty was 



516 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



unknown. The rations never went over two- thirds, and were much of the 
time down to one-half. One march was begun May 25th by the regiment 
and some Kansas troops, all under Lt.-Col. Campbell, to Clarksville, Arkan- 
sas, to keep open the navigation of the river, which was necessary to supply- 
ing Fort Smith with provisions. Two men were killed by guerrillas. While 
here, Sergt. Vance, Company C, Eighteenth Iowa, with 28 men in charge of 
a forage train, was attacked by 40 Kebels, but repulsed them and saved his 
train, losing 1 man wounded, and the enemy losing 4. August 6th, Gen. 
Thayer ordered Clarksville to be evacuated, and the troops marched back to 
Fort Smith, continually harassed by the enemy. 

From August 11th to December the regiment was on four expeditions under 
Lt.-Col. Campbell. On November 23d, it started for Fort Gibson to meet a 
large supply train of 400 wagons destined for the needy garrison at Fort 
Smith, but detained by the enemy. Arrived there, it was ordered with 
re-enforcements to march still a hundred miles to Neosho Crossing. The 
men had for rations on the way a peck of raw corn each, and a little coffee. 
A little fresh beef was killed on the way, and gunpowder was substituted 
for salt. The men suffered more from exhaustion than in any preceding 
campaign. The train was met, and, under charge of Lt.-Col. Campbell, 
conducted via Fort Gibson to Fort Smith, reaching there December 11th. 
The regiment had marched 320 miles, making night marches, and fording 
two rivers and numberless streams. 

February 26, 1865, four companies under Maj. Morey were ordered to Van 
Buren, Arkansas, to perform garrison and escort duty until July 6th, Maj. 
Morey being in charge of the post. At Fort Smith, as regarded provisions, 
they were generally " in a bad fix,'' as Gen. Edwards wrote. But in January 
of 1865, four loaded steamers arrived, and plenty again reigned. In Sep- 
tember of 1864, Col. Edwards was promoted brigadier general, and Decem- 
ber 1st, Lt.-Col. Campbell became colonel. Joseph K. Morey had been for 
some time major. July 6, 1865, the regiment was ordered to Little Rock, 
where it was mustered out of the service, returning home for final discharge. 
Fortune had placed the Eighteenth Iowa during the war in localities where 
the most decisive battles were not fought. But no regiment in the service, 
at Donelson or Shiloh or Atlanta or any other battle field, did harder fight- 
ing, nor held out more valiantly than this regiment in some of the engage- 
ments in which it took part; and none suffered more hardships, nor more 
cheerfully. 

Col. Edwards received his commission as brigadier general September 26, 
1864. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. SUBQEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


John Edwards. 
Hugh J. Campbell. 


Hugh J. Campbell. 
Joseph K. Morey. 
Wm. Ragan. 


John H. Allen. 
Henry M. Lyons. 
Edwin Kirkup. 
Henry Clay Sanford. 


David N. Smith. 
Adams Burris. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SUBGEONS. 


QUABTEBMASTERS. 


Thos. Z. Cook. 
Hugh J. Campbell. 
Joseph K. Morey. 


Chas. Bracunlich. 
Elias J. Pike. 


James Harvey. 
Henry H. Maynard. 
Wm. C. Finlaw. 
Henry Clay Sanford. 


Sidney S. Smith. 



THE NINETEENTH INFANTRY. 517 



NINETEENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was the first one in Iowa's quota to respond to Presi- 
dent Lincoln's call of July 2, 1862, for an additional army; and it led the 
way for 22 new regiments. It was mustered into the service August 25, 
1862, with Benjamin Crabb, formerly captain in the Seventh infantry, as 
colonel; Samuel McFarland, likewise captain in the Eleventh, as lieutenant 
colonel, and Daniel Kent as major. It was sent to St. Louis. September 
11th, attached to a brigade commanded by Frank J. Herron, it went to 
Rolla. September 16th, it took up line of march for Springfield. October 
11th, the regiment moved via Wilson's Creak battle ground to Cassville. 
Here was organized the Army of the Frontier. The Nineteenth formed a 
part of the Third division under Brig. Gen. F. 'J. Herron. October 17th, 
was undertaken a violent march in search of the enemy. The second 
night's camp was near the Pea Ridge battle field. On the 20th, the com- 
mand marched 25 hours without halting for food or sleep. As the regiment 
had left the camp before supper, and without time to prepare rations, the men 
were thirty hours without food. They had waded the White river, three 
feet deep, clear and cold. From White river to Bloomington the regiment 
marched much of the time on double quick. From November 14th till the 
24th, the regiment was commanded by Lt.-Col. McFarland, Col. Crabb com- 
manding the brigade. On the 17th camp was near Ozark. It had rained 
for a number of days, the roads were very bad, the night dark, and the 
baggage train did not arrive till the next morning. The troops spent the 
night without food or shelter, and exposed to a heavy storm. The next day, 
nine miles were marched through the rain and mud to James river. Here a 
part of the companies had again to stand through the night in the rain. 

In all the severe campaigning of the Nineteenth nothing had proved so 
fatal as the last two days exposure. Seventy-four of its number were ren- 
dered sick or disabled, and very many died from the effects. On the 22d, 
the regiment moved on to Twin Springs. November 24th, Col. Orm took 
command of the Second brigade. December 2d, Col. Crabb was ordered to 
Springfield , to take charge of that post, thus being separated from his regi- 
ment, and missing the battle of Prairie Grove, December 7th, where the so far 
unremitted marches and countermarches of the campaign were varied by a 
hard fought battle. Col. Crabb, however, had the opportunity to participate 
in the gallant defense of Springfield, January 8th, 1863, where the Eighteenth 
Iowa so distinguished itself. (See chapter 20) 

December 3d, intelligence received from Gen. Blunt, commanding the 
Army of the Frontier, with headquarters at Cane Hill, Arkansas, caused 
Gen. Herron to move the Second and Third divisions at Twin Springs rap- 
idly forward to re-enforce him. Gen. Totten of the Second division was ab- 
sent. Arriving December 7th at Illinois Creek, the enemy, who had interposed 
himself between Blunt and Herron, was met, and the battle of Prairie Grove 
fought. (See chapter 16.) The Ninete nth acquitted itself with high honor. 
Lt.-Col. McFarland was shot dead at the head of his regiment. December 
28th the regiment participated in the capture of Van Buren, Arkansas, and 
the march across the Boston Mountains. December 31st, it returned to 
Prairie Grove. January 2d, 1863, Gen. Schofield reviewed the division. 
Marching was again resumed. February 15th, the Nineteenth, with two 
companies of the First cavalry, was left to hold Forsyth, Missouri. April 
22d,_ the regiment marched toward Springfield. On the 23d, at Ozark, it 
received orders to proceed by forced marches toward Hartsville, Gen. Mar- 
maduke threatening that portion of the state. April 25th, it arrived at Harts- 
ville, crossed Gasconade river, and arrived May 2d at Salem, Missouri. 
Here it was temporarily attached to the First division under Gen. Ewing. 

June 3d, the regiment received orders to report at Rolla. Here, having 
rejoined its division, it was sent to Vicksburg, where it took its place in the 
line of investment and joined in the siege. July 4th, the regiment marched 



518 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

into the captured city. July 14th. Gen. Herron's division, co-operating with 
the gunboats, took Yazoo City. The regiment then joined in a raid across 
the Black river, bringing back negroes, cattle and mules. July 23d, it left 
for Port Hudson, Louisiana, where much sickness and many deaths took 
place. August 12, the division embarked for Carrollton, Louisiana, arriving 
on the 13th, and encamping in a beautiful live oak grove, with lemon and 
oleander interspersed. The health and spirits of the men were regained. 
The entire Thirteenth army corps, under Gen. Ord, of which Gen. Herron's 
division was the Second, was here reviewed by Gen. Banks and Gen. Grant. 
September 5th, Gen. Herron's division embarked for up the river, to disperse 
rebel forces threatening to obstruct navigation. On the 8th, the division 
debarked near Morganza, Louisiana, driving the enemy back across the Atcha- 
falaya, when it returned to the transports. 

September 12th, the regiment, with the Twenty-sixth Indiana and two 
pieces of artillery, under Lt.-Col. Leake of the Twentieth Iowa, was sent 
out to Sterling Farm, where a battle occurred, and all present, after a heroic 
resistance, were overpowered and taken prisoners. (See chapter 19.) Octo- 
ber 10th, Gen. Herron's division, including the uncaptured portion of the 
Nineteenth Iowa, left Morganza for Carrollton. Here an expedition to Texas 
was fitted out, and October 23d, the regiment, with troops under Gen. Banks, 
embarked for Brazos Santiago, arriving November 2d. The Nineteenth was 
the fir^t to unfurl its colors on that desolate island. November 6th, the 
troops advanced, marched two days up the Rio Grande, and crossing the 
battle fields of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, entered Brownsville. 
Lt.-Col. Kent being much of the time on court martial duty, Maj. Bruce was 
in command of the Nineteenth Iowa. The brigade, commanded by Col. 
Dye of the Twentieth Iowa, was the Second, of the Second division, Thir- 
teenth army corps. Col. Dye, keeping his brigade, was placed in command of 
the post. The last of July the regiment embarked for New Orleans, arriv- 
ing August 7th. Three companies which had been left at Brazos Santiago, 
remained till August 16th and then rejoined the rest of the regiment. At 
New Orleans, the prisoners taken of the Nineteenth Iowa at Sterling Farm, 
who had suffered in Texas prison pens, now exchanged, returned to their 
comrades. Capt. Wm. Adams died here, from the effects of his imprisonment. 
August 14th, the Nineteenth Iowa embarked with other troops on an 
expedition to Pensacola, Florida. Tents were pitched in a grove near Bar- 
rancas. Frequent expeditions were made up the bays and inlets, in one of 
which one man was killed. During this time the other three companies 
arrived from Brazos Santiago. December 6th, the regiment was taken to 
Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island. Here Mrs. Woods of Fairfield came, bring- 
ing with her sanitary stores. An expedition was sent out under Gen. 
Granger to Pascagoula, Mississippi. The command made an extensive foray 
toward Mobile, the cavalry being daily engaged with the enemy. January 
31st, 1865, the expedition returned. In the latter part of February o\ir 
troops began to gather preparatory to the Mobile campaign. March 17th, 
the Nineteenth, with its brigade, moved in advance. The weather was wet, 
the roads were bad and the ground was marshy. Corduroy roads were con- 
structed, and the artillery was often dragged by hand. At Fish river the 
Sixteenth army corps was joined. March 26th, the army arrived in front of 
Spanish Fort, which was at once invested. The Nineteenth Iowa had an 
honorable share in the siege which was terminated April 8th. (See chapter 
32.) Till May 4th, the regiment was employed in dismantling rebel 
defenses and then was ordered to Dauphin Island. June 14th, it moved to 
Mobile. July 10, 1865, it was here mustered out of service, and on the 17th 
left Mobile for Iowa, closing a military record full of honor to itself and the 
state. Col. John Bruce was brevetted brigadier general. 



THE TWENTIETH INFANTRY. 



519 



Field and Staff Officers of the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry. 





COLONELS. MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Benjamin Crabb. 
John Bruce. 


Daniel Kent. 
John Bruce. 
Harry Jordan. 
Simeon F. Roderick. 


Philip Harvey. 
Lewis M. Sloanaker. 


Dennis Murphy. 
John D. Sands. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANT. ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 


Samuel McFarland. 
Daniel Kent. 
John Bruce. 
Harry Jordan. 


Granville G. Bennett. 


Lewis M. Sloanaker. 
Dennis A. Hurst. 
Stephen F. Balch. 
M. C. Lathrop. 
Thos. S. Bell. 


Jos. H. Downing. 
James Bennett. 



TWENTIETH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the United States service at Clinton, 
Iowa, August 25, 1862. Wm. McE. Dye, who had been captain in the 
regular army, was made colonel, Joseph B. Leake, lieutenant colonel, and 
Wm. G. Thompson, major. A beautiful flag was presented to the 
Twentieth by the ladies of Lyons. September 5th, the regiment left 
Davenport for St. Louis. Shortly it proceeded to Springfield, arriving Sep- 
tember 24th. Gen. Schofield now organized what was known as the 
"Army of the Frontier," in which the Twentieth Iowa, under Lt..Col. 
Leake, was assigned to a brigade commanded by Col. Dye, and to the division 
of Gen. Totten. There was severe and rapid marching and great exposure, 
the enemy always retiring or eluding. November 18th, the troops were 
again within 25 miles of Sprinarfield. The character of the campaigning 
had been discouraging in the extreme. While there had been excessive suf- 
fering from cold, wet, hunger and fatigue, the enemy had. never been 
brought to an engagement. The men's shoes were torn and worn out by 
the fearful marches-, many bound on pieces of rawhide to their feet, and 
many left the prints of their feet in Mood. Measles broke out, and fevers 
were brought on by exposure. By December 4th, the regiment had lost from 
the active list, 230 men. 

On the evening of December 3d, came a courier from Gen. Blunt, command- 
ing the First division, asking immediate re-enforcement. Before day had 
dawned, the Second division was on the move. Joined by the Third 
division, both under Gen. Herron, Gen. Totten of the Second being absent, 
by the morning of October 7th, it was deploying in line of battle at Prairie 
Grove. Of the brave and conspicuous part which the Twentieth Iowa bore 
in this engagement, a description is given in chapter 16. It had marched 
about 110 miles in three days, and at once engaged in the fight with alert- 
ness and enthusiasm. Its losses were severe. After the battle an interval 
of rest came. December 27th, a pursuit of the enemy toward Van Buren, 
on the Arkansas river, was undertaken, and continued over the Boston 
Mountains. By December 31st, our troops were again at Prairie Grove. 
January 2, 1863, tents were struck, and the 18th found the troops encamped 
eight miles from Huntsville, Arkansas. Here they remained till the 22d, 
the roads being impassable. Added to the mud, the weather was cold, 
with rain and snow, and the men on quarter rations. January 22d, the 
troops moved to Elk Creek, arriving there February 15th. "The roads 
were without perceptible bottom," says Col. Dye. April 24th, St. Louis was 
reached. Till May 15th, the Twentieth was engaged in guarding the arsenal 
and in other duties._ Two companies, A and F, under Lt -Col. Drake, were at 
Cape Girardeau during the successful defense of that place. Companies D and 
G were also detached to quell mutinies at Benton Barracks. May 1st, 



520 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

the regiment was at Pilot Knob and remained there till June 3d, leaving 
for St. Genevieve. 

A part of the infantry and artillery of the Second and Third divisions 
having been detached from the Army of the Frontier and organized into 
a division of two brigades under Maj. Gen. Herron, was now sent on, June 
6th, to join in the siege of Vicksburg. The Twentieth Iowa was in 
the First brigade of this division. On the 14th, the command took its 
place on the left of the investing line. It remained here engaged in the 
arduous duties of the siege till the capitulation of Vicksburg, July 4th, 
the loss of the Twentieth Iowa being 6 men wounded, 3 of them mortaliy. 
At the head of a part of its division the Twentieth entered the city and 
planted the union flag on the extreme fort at the right of the rebel works. 
In Vicksburg about a third of the regiment was prostrated with fevers. 
July 13th, Yazoo City was captured by Gen. Herron's division, with the 
co-operation of the gunboats. On the 16th, the force left, to open com- 
munication with Gen. Sherman at Canton, Mississippi. This being 
established, it returned to Vicksburg on the 22d. The expedition had 
been short but severe, with intense heat, little to eat and water scarce 
and bad. Two hundred and eighty men were on the sick list. During 
the siege of Vicksburg Gen. Herron's division had been attached, as the 
Second, to the Thirteenth army corps. It embarked July 24th, for Port 
Hudson, which location, from bad water and heavy dews, produced a 
fearful sick list. The division left August 16th, for Carrollton, Louisiana, 
at which time about three-fourths of the Twentieth were under medical treat- 
ment. Here the spirits and health of the regiment revived, although 
Inany deaths occurred from protracted diseases of the summer. 

September 7th, the division again embarked with six days' rations and 
without tents or knapsacks, for up the river, to free it of threatened rebel 
obstructions. It debarked at Morganza, driving the enemy over the Atcha- 
falaya. It returned to Morganza after two days. Many men had been sun- 
struck, the heat being intense and water scarce. The men bivouacked till 
October 10th. September 12th, Lt.-Col. Leake of the Twentieth Iowa was 
placed in command of the Nineteenth Iowa regiment, the Twenty-sixth 
Indiana and two pieces of artillery. This force was sent out on heavy picket 
duty, and there resulted, September 29th, the combat of Sterling Farm, 
where the whole of this little force was captured and carried into captivity. 
(See chapter 19.) Two of the Twentieth Iowa were also captured, and with 
Lt.-Col. Leake, who was slightly wounded, shared the imprisonment at 
Tyler, Texas. Col. Dye being in command of a brigade, the command of 
the Twentieth Iowa now devolved on Maj. Thompson. October 11th, the 
division was again at the old camp at Carrollton, La. 

October 24th, Gen. Herron's division embarked in an expedition under 
Gen. Banks for the coast of Texas. A severe gale was encountered, and in 
an attempted landing four men were drowned, two of them members of the 
Twentieth Iowa. November 4th, a landing was effected on Brazos Santi- 
ago. The regiment was stationed in Texas at various points — Brownsville, 
Point Isabel, and Mustang Island. At the latter point the regiment 
remained seven months, garrisoning the works. A number of expeditions 
were made up the bay. A detachment of the regiment under Capt. Barney 
captured the blockade-running schooner " Lizzie Bacon." In the spring of 
1864, Maj. Thompson resigned, and the command of the regiment devolved 
on Capt. M. L. Thompson. June 24, 1864, the regiment left Mustang 
Island and sailed to Brazos Santiago. In the latter part of June, the regi- 
ment moved to Brownsville, remaining there on garrison duty. August 2d, 
it embarked for New Orleans. Arrived there, it embarked, August 7th, 
under command of Capt. E. Coulter, for Mobile Bay. It disembarked 
August 10th on Mobile Point, in rear of Fort Morgan, and took an active 
part in the siege of that place, losing 1 man wounded. The surrender took 
place August 23d. 

September 7th, the regiment proceeded via New Orleans to Morganza, La. 



THE TWENTY-FIRST INFANTRY. 



521 



During 1 the passage five men were badly scalded by an accident with the 
machinery. Three of them jumped overboard and were drowned. At Mor ■ 
ganza the regiment was rejoined by Lt.-Col. Leake, who had been exchanged 
with the other .prisoners of Sterling Farm. October 12th, the command 
moved up the Mississippi and disembarked at Duvall's Bluff, on the White 
river, Ark. Here and at Brownsville the regiment remained till January, 
1865. As early as August, from lack of proper diet, and from long expo- 
sure to salt atmosphere, scurvy had appeared in the regiment, and pre- 
vailed for some time. After it abated, the health of the men still suffered 
from its effects. Sanitary stores were now received from Iowa, and the 
health and spirits of the men underwent great improvement. 

In January, 1865, the regiment left Arkansas for Louisiana, and in the 
middle of February embarked for Florida. It went into camp at Florida 
Point, and remained till the Mobile campaign, in which it participated from 
first to last. On the fatiguing march to Mobile, the Twentieth Iowa had 
read to it, March 28th, an order from the division general, Brig. Gen. 
Andrews, the last of which is: "The general particularly thanks Lt.-Col. 
J. B. Leake, commanding the Twentieth Iowa volunteers, for the valuable 
and rapid service of his regiment this morning, showing by the amount 
done, how much can be accomplished by officers giving their personal inter- 
est and attention to their duty." The regiment was in the siege of Blakely 
and in the assault which carried the works April 9th. Its loss in the cam- 
paign had been 1 man wounded. April 14th, the regiment moved to Mobile, 
and was placed on provost duty. July 8, 1865, it was mustered out of the 
service and proceeded to Clinton, Iowa, receiving an ardent welcome from 
citizens and friends. July 27th, it was disbanded. 

Col. Dye and Lt.-Col. Leake were brevetted brigadier generals U. S. V. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twentieth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MA JOBS. 


SURGEONS, 


CHAPLAINS. 


Wm. McE. Dye. 


Wm, G. Thompson. 
Edward Coulter. 


Henry Ristine. 
Harris Howey. 
Abram O. Blanding. 


Uriah Eberhart. 
Richard King. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 


ADJUTANT. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTER. 


Joseph B. Leake. 


Coustante S. Lake. 


Abram O. Blanding. 
Keisey 8. Marlin. 


Jasper H. Rice. 



TWENTY-FIRST IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Dubuque in Augustof 
1862. Samuel Merrill, a future governor of Iowa, was colonel, Cornelius 
W. Dunlap lieutenant colonel, and S. G. Van Anda major. The regiment 
embarked for St. Louis, then went to Rolla. Moving to Salem, it was placed 
in October in a brigade commanded by Gen. Fitz Henry Warren, together 
with other infantry regiments and some cavalry and artillery. In Novem- 
ber, Gen. Warren moved his force to Hartsville, halting: at Houston on the 
way. At this time a supply train on its way to them from Rolla, with but 
a small guard, was attacked by a mounted force of the enemy, destroyed, 
and the guard killed or captured. A good part of this guard belonged to 
the Twenty-first Iowa. When the news reached Hartsville, the regiment 
made a forced march to the scene, but the enemy was out of the way. In 
December, Gen. Warren's command moved to Houston. 

In January, 1863, a message from Gen. Brown at Springfield, asked for 
immediate re-enforcements. Marinaduke was advancing toward Springfield 
with a large force. Gen. Warren promptly responded by sending Col. Mer- 
rill of the Twenty-first Iowa, with a force of some 880 men. Lt.-Col. Dunlap 



X.- _- 

-.' ---T ' ::.:'zzziz: : -'-- 7— -r-j-ir-: X r. _• : -:•:= 'zzzzz- 

• - - - — 7 t- :_— r- i i.: :-:--t: X-t£ - : -_ — _-z: :: ~ ;--! :r. Till 

l pmr m ri that a rebel force under Porter had o cc up i e d the town the night 

•: " ~ _ . 

- - : ?: .:_•:- - r - : '-: : r. : ._ :: - : - : 
thejeneampec .-> in line of battle. At 3 o'clock in the morn- 

__■ - - :-,.-: :zi zzzz:z zz\i >::z Xi.-r'. :_ : - - r.- - - -,:- 

in f :ece in front. CSoL Merrill rapi iiy and s'gillfallT adjusted his forces, and 

- _ : X:. ..... I".:- - .- -::X :i ~ztz -_; ;:~-er.;e-i. -~::X-X 

_r_ --: . . .-..-- - zrzzj XcXi: v:: ; :::"-. :i:: ; :::~ :i-: :z 

- - • : :if :.t'v> - _• . : :-: :- X. I ■'. - ~ : . z :~ ".— r_-l _: ; ;--- 
■ - :: ..-: :XX l:> _":.- :X-r :: :t:.:- "X r.:: T-i.._ -_- arX.-r.: --- .-.---- 

- --._£--. _ . - - • - .zL:~ z . A: 1 : ...- -- .:- r.r-: 
_"" - _"-_:. _'in.i: ti c-. -■"* -i -- 

" " - 1::: ::e . 

_. .. - - , -.- :ei IX rr_^ 11 : . ." z- : -_:-- zz. '. :zr 

:___;- X: " .-. : :-.-— ..:::- i:X ;i": :Xt rZrz; :.ri 

:: - - : :~ • X : " .- . . X : '- : ; -.". z .;-.:■••:; ;:_X--1 ::: t 

--^ — : - - -. • Mrrr. X — liiX: -— ::-=-ir-. L- i-;r_ X: XX. 



Dohp feQoved; but not until left in absolute possesshni of the field by the 

rerir_r_? r.e -.- 

. . :,-.---: .1 —r..:"- "_t . - .7 •-:•- " ~i. : -.- ."-X: :z 
XX_ : --: ~zs iz -— — - " " j " ...---- -i" 

. : -■ 7 --.i:-j ~i- r :-..-.•:■ ■ . - : - . : : : . . :~ . 
X.-- ;:: _---:- _ i- - :- - ::-::: r r_ -t: lt.: X rr .. 
::: - .:- .::.-: ~-:- ~ ._• : ■-" ~Zrr. -"I— :::X -.: - 
-. __t:t - " - --.: X- :_^- -- -.. Xi X ::X :: - .:.::,: s.z I 



:: -_:-- : X" .--. 

: v :- - -_- : 

-.It -1.11- .-^_ _j: 
. - - t •.:"£• 

- :-=■ z - zz -. :: •__ - 
r-:i "* ;•.:■: ---iz. J 

::• --1 }X-Xt 

:---:--_:: x— 

X ::•-: .-'r z •:: 
_ - ; : "; - • r. r. . . _r 




- : :. - i-— . - - '.. .. ■ m 



THE TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY. 



523 



conspicuous for its dashing courage and its heavy losses. The brave Lt.-Col. 
Duniap was slain. Maj. Van Anda was wounded. 

Col. Merrill still suffering from his wound, the regiment now came under 
the command of Capt. W. D. Crooke. After the fall of Vicksburg, it fol- 
lowed, with Sherman, Johnston's army to Jackson, and in the skirmishing 
before the city lost 15 men. Jackson fallen, it returned to Vicksburg. 

The regiment removed to Carrollton, near New Orleans, about the middle 
of August, much improvement in the health of the men resulting from the 
change. Up to the latter part of November, it was engaged at various 
points in Louisiana, guarding bridges and performing picket duty. Novem- 
ber 22d, it embarked on an expedition to Texas, where it remained about 
six months. While there, 14 of the men were captured by mounted Rebels 
while they were engaged on a scout. They were sent to the prison yards at 
Tyler, Texas. In June, the regiment returned to New Orleans. Maj. Van 
Anda had become lieutenant colonel, and Capt. Crooke, major. There was 
now guard and provost duty performed at various points. In the latter part 
of July, the regiment embarked for Morganza, and remained there about 
six weeks. Some time was then spent between points up and down the 
river, when the regiment proceeded to Memphis. There was a march into 
Tennessee in December, and on New Year's day of 1865, the command 
embarked for the South. 

February 5th, the regiment sailed for Dauphin Island to engage in the 
Mobile campaign. It was now a part of the First brigade under Gen. Slack, 
of the First division, Thirteenth army corps. It engaged in the laborious 
march for Mobile, and in the taking of Spanish Fort and Blakely by our troops, 
rendered brave and valuable service. (Chapter 32.) On April 12th, it entered 
Mobile and camped near the city. It was still some months more in the ser- 
vice before it was finally mustered out with honor, leaving a record of brill- 
iant achievement. Col. Merrill's wounds at Black River bridge were the 
cause of his discharge for disability; but he was reinstated December 21, 1863, 
by special order of the War Department. May 27, 1864, he was honorably 
discharged. Later, in remembrance of loyal and gallant service, he was 
elected governor of Iowa. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. MAJORS. SUBGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 


Samuel Merrill. 


Cornelius W. Duniap. 
Salue G. Van Anda. 
Wm. D. Crooke. 
Elisha Boardman. 


Wm. A. Hyde. 
W 7 m. L. Orr. 
Dwight W. Chase. 
Hiram H. Hunt. 


Samuel P. Sloan. 
Lorenzo Bolles, Jr. 
James Hill. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. ASST. SUBGEONS. QUABTER1IA8TEBS. 


Cornelius W. Duniap. 
Salue G. Van Anda. 


Horace Poole. 
George Crooke. 


Lucius Benham. 
Richard A. Barnes. 
Hiram H. Hunt. 
E. H. Harris. 


Chas. R. Morse. 
John S. Piatt. 



TWENTY-SECOND IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Iowa City, September 9, 
1862. Wm. M. Stone, formerly major of the Third Iowa, was made colonel; 
John A. Garrett was lieutenant colonel, and Harvey Graham major. The 
regiment was sent to St. Louis, and then moved to Rolla. It remained here 
four months as garrison. January 27, 1863, it was ordered to join the army 
under Gen. Davidson at West Plains, Mo., and was there brigaded with the 
Twenty-first and Twenty-third Iowa regiments under Col. Wm. M. Stone in 
the Army of Southeast Missouri. February 9th, the whole army marched 
to Iron Mountain. In the official history of the Twenty-second, by Adjt. 



524 IOWA IN "WAK TIMES. 

Pryce, is found the sorrowful account of the regiment's life in Missouri, 
the same as that of so many others of our much-enduring, patient and 
long-suffering Iowa regiments. There were the roads barely passable, the 
delayed trains, scarcity or utter absence of rations, the difficult inarches over 
mountainous ways, the worn-out shoes — the tired and bleeding feet. 

March 9th, orders came to join Gen. Grant for the Vicksburg campaign. 
In the new organization of the army, the Twenty-first, Twenty-second and 
Twenty-third Iowa still remained brigaded together. With them was the 
Eleventh Wisconsin, and the brigade was commanded by Col. Harris of the 
last. Gen. Carr commanded the division and Gen. McClernand the corps 
(Thirteenth). April 12th, the brigade was ordered to Richmond, La., to 
meet some rebel cavalry. In the meantime our gunboats ran the blockade 
at Vicksburg, and April 23th, the Thirteenth corps embarked for Hard 
Times. On the 29th, our fleet bombarded the rebel works at Grand Gulf, 
but without avail. The army was now ordered to move down below Grand 
Gulf, aud bivouac. The fleet passed Grand Gulf successfully in the night, 
and on the morning of April 30th, the army embarked to land at Bruins- 
burg, whence it marched toward Port Gibson. Col. Harris's brigade, now 
led by Col. Stone of the Twenty-second, led the advance. Just after mid- 
night, the advance guard, a company of the Twenty-first Iowa under Capt. 
Crooke, received the first fire of the enemy. It was three miles from Port 
Gibson. How that battle was fought and how gallantly the Twenty-second 
Iowa bore itself, is described in chapter 18. May 2d, the pursuit of the 
Rebels began. Col. Stone's brigade was halted, to replace a bridge destroyed 
by the enemy. May loth, the brigade, now under Gen. M. K. Lawler, 
arrived at Mississippi Springs. 

On the successful completion of Sherman's move on Jackson, line of 
march toward Vicksburg was resumed. In the desperate battle of Cham- 
pion Hills, fought May 16th, Gen. Carr's division remained in reserve; but 
in pursuit of the defeated enemy, the Twenty-second Iowa was active and 
successful. At 'daylight of the 17th, the army moved on toward Black 
River Bridge, with Carr's division in the advance. The famous charge of 
Lawler's brigade on the enemy's works is described in chapter 18. The 
Twenty-first and the Twenty-third Iowa, with the Eleventh Wisconsin, were 
in this fierce assault. The Twenty-second Iowa was ordered to move down 
the river and assault the enemy's right, and succeeded in cutting off the 
retreat of most of the Rebels flying before the charge of its comrade reg- 
iments. 

This brilliant feat of arms, resulting in the capture of between 15 and 20 
pieces of artillery, more prisoners than the brigade numbered, and several 
thousand stand of small arms, covered the brigade with glory. Soon the 
Thirteenth corps took up its march for Vicksburg. The Twenty-third Towa 
had been detached from its brigade, to take the prisoners of Champion Hills 
and Black River Bridge to Memphis. On the 19th McClernand's troops 
reached the hills surrounding the city. The siege was actively entered on, 
firing was opened and skirmishing commenced. In the fierce assault of May 
22d, Lawler's brigade bore conspicuous part. A little band of the brave 
Twenty-second were all of the union army to force a way inside the enemy's 
works. This was at Fort Beauregard, and nearly all paid for their temerity 
with their lives. (See chapter 18.) Col. Stone was wounded and was suc- 
ceeded in command by Lt.-Col. Graham. During the whole seige, the brig- 
ade did its full part in the arduous duties of the enterprise ended on July 
4th, by the capitulation of the city. The Twenty-third had previoasly 
rejoined its brigade. July 5th, the command marched with Sherman's pur- 
suing army to Jackson. Suffering like many other Iowa regiments from the 
exposures and vicissitudes of the campaign, the Twenty-second had now less 
than 150 men fit for duty. It participated in the fighting at Jackson. 

After the evacuation of the city by the Rebels, the brigade was engaged 
in destroying railroad, and July 24th returned to Vicksburg. Following 
this, Col. Stone, who had recovered from his wound and rejoined the army, 



THE TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY. 525 

bade farewell to his command and returned to Iowa, to become governor of 
the state. 

July 31st, the division, now the First of tlie Thirteenth army corps, was 
placed under Maj. Gen. C. C. Washbume. The brigade was again under 
Col. Harris. August 13th, the command moved down the river to Carrollton, 
where preparations were made for a campaign under Banks in Louisiana. 
This expedition led through Bayou Bluff, Brashear City, Berwick, Iberia, 
Franklin, St. Martinsville, Vermillionville, and Opelousas. It lasted over 
two months, and there were several skirmishes, though no important 
results. The enemy was temporarily driven from the region. The division 
was now ordered to accompany Gen. Banks's expedition to Texas. It 
embarked in two divisions — Companies A, C, D, F and I, under Col. Gra- 
ham, and the remaining companies under Maj. White. The part of the 
regiment under Col. Graham, landed November 27th on Mustang Island. 
On the 29th, it joined in an expedition against Fort Esperanza, which was 
taken. December 2d, the troops went into camp at DeCrou's Point, where 
they were rejoined by Maj. White with his detachment of the Twenty-second. 

January 3, 1864, the division embarked for Indianola, forty miles up the 
bay. The enemy retired as our army approached. Later, the brigade was 
ordered to Old Indianola for winter quarters. Here Gen. Fitz Henry War- 
ren of Iowa took command of the brigade. The division was commanded 
successively by Generals Washbume, Dana and Benton. It was at this 
place that the enemy captured a small force of our mounted infantry. The 
loss of the Twenty-second Iowa was 6. March 13, 1864, the troops returned 
to Matagorda Island. Col. Graham being in Iowa on recruiting service and 
Maj. White on leave of absence, the Twenty-second was commanded by 
Maj. Houston of the Twenty-third Iowa. April 21st, there was a successful 
expedition under Gen. Warren, to Port Lavaca. The First division was now 
ordered to report to Gen. Banks at New Orleans. From there, May 4th, the 
left wing of the Twenty-second Iowa, under Capt. A. B.-Cree, with the 
Twenty-third Iowa, and accompanied by Gen. Warren and staff, embarked 
for up the Red river to join Gen. Banks's army. After delay as to transports, 
the force proceeded to Semmsport on the Atchafalaya, joining Banks on his 
retreat from Alexandria. The army then marched to Morganza. June 9th, 
Capt. Cree was ordered to rejoin the rest of the regiment at Baton Rouge, 
and he arrived there June 10th. 

The Twenty-second Iowa was now transferred to a totally new field of 
action. Brigaded with New York and New England regiments, and with 
the Eleventh Indiana, under Col. E. L. Molineux of the One-hundred-and- 
fifty-ninth New York, and placed in the Second division under Gen. Grover 
of the Nineteenth army corps, it was ordered to reportat Washington, D. C. 
It reached there August 1st, and was ordered to join the forces of Gen. 
Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. Its division included the brigade in 
which were the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa. The three Iowa 
regiments in the hot battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, 
distinguished themselves anew, and their gallantry brought added honor to 
their state. The events of the Valley campaign are recorded in chapter 30. 
November 30, 1864, the strength of the Twenty-second was 24 officers and 
547 men. At the beginning of the year 1865, the command was again trans- 
ferred to a widely different scene — Savannah, Georgia. In March, it was at 
Morehead City. It returned to Savannah, and early in April the brigade 
was reorganized. It was now formed of the Twenty-second, Twenty-fourth 
and Twenty-eighth Iowa regiments, with two from New York and one from 
Connecticut, and was commanded by Col. Harvey Graham of the Twenty- 
second Iowa. April 11th, the command moved to Augusta. July 25, 1865, the 
Twenty-second Iowa was mustered out of the service at Savannah. Col. 
Stone was brevetted brigadier general September 17, 1862, and became gov- 
ernor of Iowa January 1, 1864. Col. Harvey Graham was also brevetted 
brigadier general. 



526 



IOWA IN WAE TIMES. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-second Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJOBS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Wm. M. Stone. 
Harvey Graham. 


Harvey Graham. 
Joseph B. Atherton. 
Ephraim G. White. 
John Henry Gearkea. 


Wm. H. White. 
Alfred B. Lee. 
John C. Shrader. 


Richard B. Allender. 
Martin Bowman. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



A8ST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTEES. 



John A. Garrett. 
Harvey Graham. 
Ephraim G. White. 



Joseph B. Atherton. 
John W. Porter. 
David J. Davis. 
Saml. D. Pryce. 
Oscar B. Lee. 
Taylor Pierce. 



Alfred B. Lee. 
Oren Peabody. 
Wm. A. Dinwiddie. 
John E. Stanbury. 



Chauncey F. Love- 
lace. 
James W. Sterling. 



TWENTY-THIRD IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Des Moines, Septem- 
ber 19, 1862 — the day made glorious to Iowa by the battle of Iuka. 
Wm. Dewey was made colonel, Wm. H. Kinsman lieutenant colonel and 
Samuel L. Glasgow major. It was sent soon to Missouri, that great 
marching field and school of bitter experience. Longing for active war- 
fare, it was kept in the rapid pursuit of an enemy always disappearing 
before it and awaiting only its departure to appear again. The roads 
were usually as bad as mud and rain could make them, supply trains 
were delayed, if indeed they were provided; the men's shoes were torn 
and worn by the violent forced inarches; the nights were cold and much 
of the time spent in bivouac; rations were reduced to the lowest ebb, 
and often absolutely wanting, — in short, nature, climate, and the circum- 
stances of war conspired to sow disease and create suffering in the ranks 
of our young regiments burning with loyalty and with ambition to dis- 
tinguish themselves in battle. The Twenty-third experienced the usual 
round of duties — garrisoning and guarding, and marching on expeditions 
involving 1 almost incredible fatigue and exposure, though apparently with 
no important result. 

About the 1st of February, 1863, at West Plains, it was brigaded 
with the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Iowa, under Col. Stone of the 
Twenty-second. This brave brigade, long associated together, was des- 
tined to win honor for itself and its state by its brilliant achievements 
in future bloody battle scenes. Exposure and hardship lost many lives 
to the regiment. Col. Dewey died in November. Lt.-Col. Kinsman was 
promoted to his place, Maj. Glasgow became lieutenant colonel and Capt. 
Clark of Company B, major. With its brigade, the regiment was at Emi- 
nence and Iron Mountain, remaining for a time at the latter place and 
then marching to St. Genevieve on the river. In the marches and move- 
ments of the Twenty-third, as a part of the brigade, some interesting addi- 
tional items may be found in the sketch of the Twenty-second Iowa. No 
official history has been furnished the adjutant general of the Twenty- 
first or the Twenty-third. 

The brigade, including also the First Iowa battery, Capt. Harry Griffiths, was 
now ordered to join Gen. Grant's army around Vicksburg. It arrived March 
22, 1863, at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. Reorganized in this new army, 
the brigade was increased by the Eleventh Wisconsin, and was designated 
as Second brigade, Fourteenth divison, Thirteenth army corps. Col. Harris 
of the Eleventh Wisconsin commanded the brigade, Gen. Carr the division, 
and Gen. McClernand the corps. On the I2th of April the brigade went on 
a short expedition to drive out some rebel cavalry at Richmond, Louisiana. 
Accomplishing this, it awaited at Perkins Landing the arrival of its corps. 



THE TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY. 527 

The Thirteenth corps embarked April 23th on the transports which had run 
the blockade at Vicksburg, and moved down the river nearly to Grand Gulf, 
debarking on the opposite side. 

On the 29th, a grand bombardment of the powerful rebel fortifications of 
Grand Gulf by the union fleet , was witnessed by our army from the river 
bank. The interest was intense while the brilliant spectacle lasted, but 
our fleet finally withdrew. The army was now moved down to a point 
below Grand Gulf, where it bivouacked for the night — but not to sleep. 
The soldiers were awakened by the roar of the guns, as our gunboats con- 
voying the transports, successfully ran under and out from the batteries of 
Grand Gulf. When morning came, our troops embarked for Bruinsburg, 
and then was begun the march inland which was to make the way to Vicks- 
burg a line of battle fields. 

First came the battle of Port Gibson, where the brigade, now under Col. 
Stone, led the advance. It fought earliest and latest, and signalized itself 
by its gallantry. The Twenty-third Iowa led its brigade advance in the 
afternoon, and its loss was greater than that of any other Iowa regiment. 

The next battle field on the march to Vicksburg was Raymond, where the 
brigade, now under Gen. Lawler, did not participate. 

The division awaited here Sherman's return from Jackson. When the 
capital of Mississippi fell, it marched on to the bloody field of Champion 
Hills. But Carr's division was here held in reserve, and Lawler's daring 
brigade marched on to create one of the most brilliant episodes of the war 
in its dashing charge at Black River Bridge, where its daring, alone, pur- 
chased the victory. 

The sacrifice was great. The Twenty-third Iowa led in the charge, and 
Col. Kinsman was among the killed. The Twenty-second Iowa had been 
detached to co-operate by another way, and succeeded in capturing the 
greater part of the escaping Rebels. These brilliant engagements in which 
the brigade was conspicuous are described in the chapter on Vicksburg. 

The Twenty-third Iowa was now for a time detached from its brigade, to 
conduct the many prisoners of Champion Hills and Black River Bridge to 
Memphis. On the return it reached Milliken's Bend in time to re-enforce 
the small colored garrison when attacked by the Rebels, June 7th. (See 
chapter 20.) The brave Twenty-third had already been reduced by its short 
career of service to less than 200 men fit for duty, and now again lost heav- 
ily. It was commanded in the fight by Lt.-Col. Glasgow, and with him 
received special recognition. The regiment now rejoined its brigade in the 
siege of Vicksburg. That concluded, with its command it hastened with 
Sherman to Jackson, where it participated in taking the city. It then 
returned with its command to Vicksburg, and in August was transferred 
with its comrade regiments and its entire corps, under Gen. Ord, to the 
Department of the Gulf. 

In the Louisiana expedition, the Twenty-third participated with its brig- 
ade (the Second), which was now commanded by Col. Harris of the Eleventh 
Wisconsin. The division had been consolidated with the Ninth, was desig- 
nated as the First division of the Thirteenth corps, and was commanded by 
Gen. C. C. Washburne. After moving to Iberia, Franklin, Martinsville, 
Vermillionville and Opelousas, with some skirmishing on the way, the First 
division was ordered to return to Algiers, opposite New Orleans, and embark 
in an expedition to Texas. 

Arrived in Texas, it was a part of the force which captured Fort Esperanza. 
It passed its winter at Indianola, and about the middle of March, 1864, went 
with the Twenty-second Iowa to Matagorda Island. Here its major, Leon- 
ard B. Houston, for a time commanded the Twenty-second Iowa, whose reg- 
imental officers were absent. Gen. Fitz Henry Warren had been for some 
time in command of the brigade. The First division of the Thirteenth 
corps was now ordered back to New Orleans to re-enforce Gen. Banks, 
who had met with reverses on the Red River. May 4th, the Twenty-third 
regiment and a detachment of the Twenty-second, with some other troops, 



528 



IOWA IN WAE TIMES. 



started from New Orleans up the Mississippi, under command of Gen. Fitz 
Henry Warren. They proceeded to Fort de Russey, where navigation was 
obstructed. Returning to the mouth of Red river, the arrival of transports 
enabled the troops to proceed, May 15th, to Semmsport, on the Atchafalaya, 
to join Gen. Banks's troops. The army then marched to Morganza and 
went into camp May 22d. 

About this time, the Twenty-second Iowa was ordered to the East, to join 
Gen. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. The Twenty-third was now in a 
new brigade with the Twentieth Iowa and other regiments. The brigade 
was commanded by Lt.-Col. Leake of the Twentieth Iowa, and was in the 
Third division of the Nineteenth army corps. The remainder of the year 
was spent by the command in Arkansas, in difficult marches and in arduous 
work on fortifications. In the beginning of the new year, 1865, the com- 
mand returned to New Orleans to join in the approaching Mobile campaign. 
Col. Glasgow being much of the time in command of the brigade, Lt.-Col. 
Clark led the Twenty-third Iowa. It participated in the laborious marching 
over muddy roads and in the operations of the siege, and in the storming of 
Spanish Fort bore a gallant part. Remaining some time at Mobile, it was 
again sent to Texas, encamping at Columbus, where Maj. Houston com- 
manded the post. July 26, 1865, it was honorably mustered out of the ser- 
vice and returned to Iowa, thus closing its brilliant military career. Col. 
Samuel L. Glasgow was brevetted brigadier general, December 19, 1864. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAIN. 


Wm. Dewey. 
Win. H. Kinsman. 
Sam'l L. Glasgow. 


Sam'l L. Glasgow. 
Ghas. J. Clark. 
Leonard B. Houston. 


Alvis H. East. 
Oren Peabody. 


Arthur J. Barton. 






LIEUT. COLONELS. 



Wm. H. Kinsman. 
Sam'l L. Glasgow. 
Chas. J. Clark. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



Chas. O. Dewey. 
Matthew C. Brown. 
Ebenezer B. Nelson. 



Smith V. Campbell. 
Chas. B. Bosbyshell. 
L. M. Tidrick. 
Norman R. Cornell. 
W. H. Ward. 
Timothy J. Caldwell. 



Robt. W. Cross. 
Wm. Merrill. 
Plimpton E. Greer. 



TWENTY-FOURTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This was the "Temperance regiment. 1 ' Its colonel, Eber C. Byarn, was a 
Methodist preacher, as were other of its officers. It was mustered into the 
service at Muscatine, September 18, 1862. John Q. Wilds was lieutenant 
colonel, and Ed Wright, major. It is to the courtesy of the major, now 
Gen. Wright, that the author is indebted for the material for this sketch of 
the brave Twenty-fourth. In camp at Muscatine the regiment lost many of 
its men from measles. It was ordered to report at Helena, Arkansas, and 
arrived there October 28th, where it was placed in the brigade of Col. 
McGinnis of the Eleventh Indiana. November 17th, the regiment formed 
part of an expedition, under Gen. Hovey, to the mouth of the White river. 
In another to Cohiwater, Mississippi, to aid in a movement by Gen. Grant, 
the Twenty-fourth heard for the first time the greeting of hostile cannon. 
January 11, 1863, it participated in Gen. Gorman's expedition up the White 
river. The exposure to rain, cold and frost proved fatal to many. 

Helena, except for beauty, had become a Venice. Rain was almost inces- 
sant, the back waters of the Mississippi formed lakes on either hand, while- 
the streets were canals, threaded by canoes. Camp was removed to the hills 
and the road thither raised and piked. When the flood finally subsided, a 
bottomless mud remained. Disease ran riot. The Twenty-fourth alone 



THE TWENTY-FOURTH INFANTRY. 529 

buried each day a comrade, and the hills became dotted with graves. Feb- 
ruary 15th, in Gen. Fisk's brigade, the regiment was part of the force which 
cleared out the obstructions in the Yazoo Pass. When spring appeared, it 
entered on Grant's active Vicksburg campaign. It was in Harvey's division 
of McClernand's corps. Its brigade included the Twenty-eighth Iowa and 
Forty-seventh Indiana, and was commanded by Col. Slack of the last named 
regiment. The damps of Helena had left it but 600 well men. 

April 28th we find the Twenty-fourth embarking at Perkins' Landing, on 
the steamers which had run the blockade at Vicksburg. Near Grand Gulf 
the gunboats advanced alone to engage the enemy, the troops waiting on 
the transports to land and assault when the batteries should be silenced. 
It was a magnificent bombardment of five hours — but fruitless. The plan 
was changed. I he soldiers landed at Hard Times, opposite, and inarched 
to a point below. That night the fleet ran the blockade and morning found 
the army crossing to Bruinsburg. 

The battle of Port Gibson, the first of the brilliant series leading up to 
Vicksburg, opened at daylight of May 1st. (For battles of this campaign 
see chapter 18.) The regiments vied with each other in seeking the posts 
of honor. Col. Byam of the Twenty-fourth left the field from illness, but 
his regiment acquitted itself like one skilled on the battle field — in a way to 
make our untried Iowa boys equally sought for to lead charges and assaults 
with the veterans of many fields. Skirmishing, guarding, advancing and 
fighting, bivouacking in rain and in mud, May 16th found Hovey's division 
leading the advance to Vicksburg and meeting the enemy at Champion Hills. 
The contest was fierce and bloody. Hovey could not find words to express 
his admiration of the two brave Iowa regiments of his division. "What 
shall I say of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa! " But it was a 
gloomy night for the heroes of the day when at roll call only half responded 
to their names. Company B of the Twenty-fourth was body guard of 
McClernard and not in the fight. May 24th, the regiment took its place at 
the left of the line investing Vicksburg, and shared fully and patiently in the 
arduous duties of the siege. July 4th, when Vicksburg fell, it joined in the 
swift pursuit of Johnston. 

August 2d, the Twenty-fourth embarked for a new field— the Department 
of the Gulf, under Gen. Banks. It engaged in a campaign in Louisiana 
which led through Brashear City, Berwick and Vermillionville. During its 
progress, Capt. J. C. Gere was shot by guerrillas. Maj. Wright took command 
of the regiment, Col. Byam having resigned June 80th, and Lt.-Col. Wilds 
beinsr home on recruiting service. The expedition lasted more than two months, 
but little was accomplished. March 13. 1864, the Twenty-Fourthwith its com- 
mand entered on Gen. Banks's unhappy Red river expedition. (See chapter 
23.) Col. Raynor commanded the brigade (the Third), Gen. Cameron the 
division (the Third) and Gen. Ransom the two divisions (the Third and Fourth) 
detached from the Thirteenth army corps. Reaching Pleasant Hill the even- 
ing of April 7th, the brigade was ordered to support our cavalry which was 
skirmishing with the enemy. But the enemy fell back. _ At daylight, line 
of march was resumed, and at 2 p. m. was fought the disastrous battle of 
Mansfield or Sabine Cross Roads. Cameron's division was ordered to oppose 
about ten times its number. Five companies of the Twenty-fourth, under 
Maj. Wright, fought and lost heavily. The other five companies were escort- 
ing a train. Retreating, Pleasant Hill was reached about sunrise of the 9th, 
and the divisions of the Thirteenth corps were ordered to immediately take 
the trains to Grand Ecore, on the Red river. It was but the advance of a 
grand retreat entered upon by Banks with his entire force after Pleasant 
Hill was fought on April 9th. This mortifying retreat was continually 
harassed by the enemy, till with skirmishing and fighting and daily losses, 
the Mississippi river was reached May 21st. A part of this time Maj. 
Wright had commanded his brigade. Lt.-Col. Wilds also returned to the 
regiment. The expedition of Gen. Banks had been signally unfortunate. 

I. W. T.— 34 



530 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



July 6th came orders to "embark for an unknown destination." On 
board the ocean steamer " Star of the South," the sealed orders were opened. 
The destination was Fortress Monroe. Virginia, and the purpose, to join the 
army of Gen. Phil. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. The role that the 
Twenty-second, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa regiments played 
in that brilliant and bloody Valley campaign, and the glory these brave sol- 
diers won for themselves and Iowa at Winchester and Fisher's Hill and 
Cedar Creek are depicted in chapter 30, It was a brilliant ending to their 
gallant fighting record. January 6, 1865, the Twenty-fourth was transferred 
to another scene, Savannah, Georgia. With the other two Iowa regiments 
from the Valley it was in the rear guard of Sherman's northward marching 
army. AtMorehead City, Goldsboro. Savannah, Hamburgh and Augusta, 
it served vigilantly till on July 17, 1865, at Savannah, it was mustered out 
of the service. 

Col. Ed Wright, first major, was brevetted brigadier general to rank from 
March 13, 1865. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-fourth Ioiva Infantry. 



COLONELS. MAJOR.-. 


SUEGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 


EberC. Byam. |Ed Wright. 
John Quincy Wilds. 'Leander Clark. 
Ed Wright. | James W. Martin. 


John F. Ely. 

John M. Witherwax. 

Henry M. Lyons. 


Felix W. Vinson. 
Elias Skinner. 
Gerge R. Carroll. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 


John Quincy Wilds. 
Ed Wright. 
Leander Clark. 


Charles L. Byam. 
Daniel W. Camp. 
Wm. H. Smouse. 


Henry M. Lyons. i Luke Baldwin, jr. 
John M. Witherwax. Albert B. Eshleman. 
Sylvanus S. Cook. 
J. Meek Lanning. 



TWENTY-FIFTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

For material for this sketch of a brave regiment the author owes thanks 
to the courtesy of Col. D. J. Palmer and Quartermaster J. W. Garner. The 
Twenty-fifth was mustered into the service at Mt. Pleasant, September 27, 

1862. Geo A. Stone, former lieutenant in the First infantry, and major in 
the Fourth cavalry, was made colonel; Fabian Brydolf, former captain in 
the Sixth infantry, who lost his right arm at Shiloh, was made lieutenant 
colonel, and Calvin Taylor major, 'lhe regiment was sent to St. Louis and 
then to Helena, Arkansas. Here, detachments of the regiment participated 
in the expedition in aid of Gen. Grant's movement, to Cold Water, and also 
in the memorable White river expedition. In the winter of 1862, in Sher- 
man's co-operative movement against Vicksburg, the regiment was placed 
in Gen. Steele's division, the First, of the Fifteenth army corps. It remained 
a part of the same to the end of the war. 

It participated in the disastrous engagement of Chickasaw Bayou, where it 
was first under fire. (See chapter 17") The first man killed from its ranks 
was Corporal Yount, Company B. (See page 329.) Again, January 11. 

1863, the Twenty-fifth fought at the capture of Arkansas Post, and with con- 
spicuous valor and severe loss. (See chapter 17.) Adjt. S. Kirkwood 
Clark was mortally wounded. Now the regiment was located in the unhealth- 
ful camp at Young's Point. Early in April it was sent in Gen. Steele's expe- 
dition to Greenville, Mississippi, whose object was to attract the enemy 's 
attention from Grant's principal movement. When the advance of Grant's 
anny for Grand Gulf took place, the Twenty-fifth Iowa and Thirtieth Missouri 
were sent, under Col. Stone, to Richmond, Louisiana, to guard the pontoons 
at that place. When relieved, they marched to Hard Times Landing, Col. 
Stone being placed in command of the transports ferrying the army to 



THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY. 531 

Grand Gulf. After crossing, the regiment escorted a supply train to the 
front, overtaking the army corps at Clinton, Mississippi, and taking its 
position with its division. Capt. W. F. Conrad was captured at Raymond 
and was held prisoner till near the close of the war, escaping then to our 
line at Knoxville, Tennessee. He was thus never able to rejoin his regi- 
ment. He is now a well-known judge in Des Moines. 

In the advance of the Fifteenth army corps the regiment reached Vicks- 
burg and took position at the extreme right of the investing line. It par- 
ticipated in the bloody assault of May 22d, losing heavily. Day and night, 
the regiment took its part in advancing the lines, in digging, in fortifying, 
in skirmishing, — in all pertaining to that famous siege. (See chapter 18.) 
] t gained a position for its sharpshooters, commanding the famous water bat- 
tery with the gun, "Whistling Dick," in trying to work which the Rebels 
admitted losing large numbers of men. In the meantime, Lt.-Col. Brydolf 
of the Twenty-fifth had resigned, and was succeeded by Capt. David J. 
Palmer of Company A. Maj. Taylor had left the service and was succeeded 
by Capt. J. L. Perkins of Company D. When Vicksburg fell, July _4th, 
prompt were the orders to move by 3 o'clock next morning in pursuit of 
Johnston. While Jackson was besieged, the Twenty-fifth with its brigade 
and with the cavalry under Gen. Bussey was sent to Canton to destroy 
railroad property. Returning, the entire Fifteenth army corps went into 
camp at Black River Bridge. In September the division embarked for 
Memphis. Gen. Osterhau? had succeeded Gen. Steele in its command. 
Route was then taken for Corinth, and then a march to Iuka and Cherokee 
Station . 

The regiment was in the engagement of Cherokee Station and Tuscumbia. 
(See chapter 21.) Line of march was now taken up for Chattanooga. The 
obstructed roads preventing its division from arriving to take position in its 
corps, it was temporarily assigned to Hooker's command, and fought under him 
at Lookout Mountain, at Mission Ridge and at Ringgold. (See chapter 21.) 
Col. Stone, the gallant commander of the gallant Twenty-fifth, furnished 
graphic and full reports of the many engagements in which his regiment figured. 
The division was sent to Bridgeport, and then to Woodville, Alabama. The Fif- 
teenth corps was now under Gen. John A. Logan, with headquarters at Hunts- 
ville. Following the battle of Chattanooga, the Twenty-fifth was for a time 
detached from its Iowa brigade and brigaded with four Missouri regiments, 
Col. Stone being senior and commanding officer. Two of these regiments, 
the Third and Twelfth Missouri, had at onetime been commanded by Sigel 
and Osterhaus respectively, as colonels. The regiment with its brigade was 
in several expeditions, one to Lebanon, Alabama, and one to Cleveland, 
Tennessee. 

May 1st, the regiment set out for the Atlanta campaign. It had resumed 
its place in Williamson's Iowa brigade, the regiments of which, the Fourth, 
Ninth, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first Iowa, remained comrades till the end 
of the war. For the part played by this command with its Fifteenth corps 
in the brilliant campaign following, its long series of marches, skirmishes 
and battles, see chapter 25. The regiment engaged in the pursuit of 
Hood and then under Sherman's banner marched to the sea. (See chapter 
27.) At Savannah, Col. Stone of the Twenty-fifth took command of this 
Iowa brigade to which the Thirtieth Iowa was attached, and led it on its 
march northward. (See chapter 31.) At Columbia, South Carolina, to Col. 
Stone and his gallant brigade fell the distinguished honor of taking posses- 
sion, in the name of our army, of this stronghold of the Confederacy, the 
mayor delivering the city into their hands. At the battle of Bentonsviile the 
Twenty-fifth lost heavily. It marched on with Sherman's army to Wash- 
ington and joined in the grand review. It was mustered out of the service 
at Washington, June 6, 1865. 

Geo. A. Stone was brevetted brigadier general March 13, 1865. 



532 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLArNS. 


Geo. A. Stone. 


Calvin Taylor. 
John L. Perkins. 


Win. S. Marsh. 
Henry M. Parr. 
Chas. F. Marsh. 


Thos. E. Corkhill. 
Abraham Hollems. 


LTEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTER?. 


Fabian Brydolf. 
David J. Palmer. 


S. Kirkwood Clark. 

Saml. W. Snow. 

Jaa. P. Wightrnan, jr. 


James D. Gray. 
Henry M. Farr. 
Chas. F. Marsh. 


Frederick J. Clark. 
J. Whitfield Garner. 



TWENTY-SIXTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Clinton, September 30, 1862, 
with Milo Smith as colonel, Samuel G. Magill as lieutenant colonel, and 
Samuel Clarke as major. Being sent South, it joined the Twenty- fourth at 
St. Louis and speedily moved with it to Helena, Arkansas, where it was 
attached to the Army of the Southwest. Its stay at Helena was an unhappy 
one, like that of so many of our regiments. The rain was almost incessant and 
the mud difficult to traverse. Drilling could not be pursued and sickness 
and death followed the exposure. The spirits of the men fell low and 
Helena became hateful from association. Two expeditions varied the 
monotony of camp life. One went up the White river to Duvall's Bluff, 
and the other was into Mississippi in support of a movement of Grant. 

Following this came Sherman's movement to Chickasaw Bayou to co-op- 
erate with Grant. Without directly engaging, the Twenty-sixth was under 
fire at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, where the Fourth regiment won 
such distinction. At the capture of Arkansas Post by McClernand, January 1 1 , 
1863, among many brave fighting- regiments, none more distinguished itself 
than the Twenty-sixth. (See chapter 17.) Gen. Thayer, proud of his Iowa 
brigade, wrote glowing words of tribute to its bravery to Gov. Kirkwood. 
He " wanted nothing better than to lead such soldiers." The brigade was 
in Steele's division of Sherman's corps. The regiment suffered heavy loss. 

In the great Vicksburg campaign, the regiment was in Steele's Deer 
Creek raid to Greenville and the interior, to draw attention from Grant's 
movements. It was present at the capture of Jackson, May 14th. On the 
18th, it was skirmishing in the investing- line at Vicksburg, two officers and 
three privates being wounded that day. Col. Smith was wounded in the 
assault of the 19th, and in the bloody charge of May 22d, the regiment lost 
severely. (See chapter 18.) Lt.-Col. Magill and Maj. Clarke had resigned 
in the latter part of 1862, and Adjt. Ferreby having been severely wounded 
at Arkansas Post, Capt. Roe acted with the colonel as field officer, until the 
return of Adjt. Ferreby as lieutenant colonel. When Vicksburg capitulated. 
July 4th, the Twenty-sixth was in Sherman's pursuing army, in the siege of 
Jackson and the subsequent pursuit to Brandon. Col. Smith led the brigade. 
Lt.-Col. Ferreby the regiment. At the Black River Bridge in August and 
September, chills and fever thinned the ranks. 

October 10th, the regiment is at luka to guard the railway. From October 
21st to 29th, there is a running fight between Tuscumbia and Cherokee, 
where one man is killed and one severely wounded. November 23d, in the 
First division, Fifteenth army corps the regiment is at Chattanooga. See 
chapter 21.) On the 24th, it fights with Hooker on Lookout Mountain, fol- 
lows the path of victory to Mission Ridge on the 25th, and to Ringgold on 
the 26th. Lt.-Col. Ferreby is again wounded. At Woodville the day aft/r 
Christmas the regiment numbered 502. It was commanded by Capt. Roe, 
and the brigade by Col. Smith. A reconnoissance on the Tennessee river 



THE TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY. 533 

took place, the enemy being 1 met and repulsed. In March, 1864, the regi- 
ment established an outpost at Vienna, Alabama. 

May 1st. it started on the Atlanta campaign. Its history here is more 
fully recorded than at any other time of its career, by Maj. John Lubbers. 
It was a hard-fighting regiment in the brigade of Gen. Woods, as was also 
the Thirtieth Iowa. It was in Osterhaus's division, as was Williamson's 
Iowa brigade. The Twenty-sixth was engaged with the enemy at Resaca, 
losing 1 killed and 2 wounded. The next day it crossed the creek by wading 
and on logs, fighting as it crossed. It drove the enemy, but had 3 killed 
and 21 wounded — 4 mortally. Three of the wounded were commissioned 
officers. At Dallas, on the 29th, the regiment lost 1 mortally wounded and 
1 missing. From June 10th to 26th, it was daily engaged at Big Shanty. 
Seven were wounded, 1 an officer, and 1 killed. In the Kenesaw valley, 
constantly under fire, 2 were killed and 3 wounded. Continuously engaged 
in sharpshooting, July 1st, 1 was killed and 1 wounded. From the 5th on, 
at the Chattahoochee river, it was skirmishing. Its division recaptured De 
Cress's battery, where the Twenty-sixth had 5 wounded. At Ezra's Chapel, 
where the whole Fifteenth corps was engaged, it had 1 officer and 1 man 
severely wounded. The intervals were filled with marching, intrenching, 
guarding and picketing, and supporting other forces. July 30th, worn out 
with action, the Twenty-sixth was ordered to the reserve. August 9th, it 
was thrown again to the front, and a man was killed on the skirmish line. 
Till the 26th, in continuous duty and skirmish, 1 officer and 2 men were 
killed and 9 severely wounded. At Jonesboro, August 31st, 1 officer and 4 
men were wounded. September 1st, re-enforcing a brigade in the Seven- 
teenth corps, 1 officer and 3 men were wounded. At Lovejoy, throwing up 
works and skirmishing, 4 were severely wounded. Marching to East Point, 
1 man was wounded. October 4th, the regiment joined in the pursuit of 
Hood. On the Etowah, some of its men sank down, exhausted by the 
forced march, and were either killed or captured by guerrillas. October 
16th, the regiment aided in assaulting and driving the enemy at Ship's Gap, 
on Taylor's Ridge, losing 1 killed and 4 wounded. In this we have a brief 
outline of the experience of a hard-fighting regiment. 

November loth, the Twenty-sixth marched with Sherman's army for the 
sea. Forage was abundant, health good and spirits high. Reaching 
Savannah, the regiment, with its brigade, escorted a forage train forty miles 
into the interior. On its return it found our army occupying the city. 

The author is indebted to Lieut. E. Svendsen for interesting particulars 
concerning the regiment in the march through the Carolinas. The brigade 
commander, Gen. C. R. Woods, now led the division, and Gen. W. B. Woods 
the brigade. The Thirtieth Iowa was attached to the Iowa brigade of the 
same division, led now by Col. Stone. At Dick Taylor's farm the Twenty- 
sixth skirmished with rebel cavalry, driving tliem. At Columbia, it passed 
through the city after the Iowa brigade. That evening it relieved the 
Thirtieth Iowa as provost guard in the burning city. March 18th and 
19th, the regiment waded creeks waist deep, but all in good spirits. At 
Bentonsville, guarding supply and ammunition train, it left its camp for 
the front, to fight with the division, losing 1 killed and 8 wounded. April 
12th came the news of Lee's surrender. Gen. Logan passed down the 
columns and asked "if they felt a little better." Cheers went along the 
whole line. The Twenty-sixth marched on to Washington and shared in 
the grand review. It was there mustered out of service, June 6, 1865. 

Col. Milo Smith became, long years afterward, first commandant of the 
Iowa Soldiers' Home at Marshatltown, built by a grateful and generous 
Btatefor its noble defenders. 



534 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty- sixth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. MAJORS. SURGEON. 


CHAPLArNS. 


Milo Smith. 
John Lubbers. 


Samuel Clark. 
Charles M. Nye. 
John Lubbers. 
Nathan D. Hubbard. 
Wm. H. Hall. 


Abijah T. Hudson. 


John McLeish, jr. 
John Van Antwerp. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTER. 


Samuel G. Magill. IThos. G. Ferreby. 
Thos. G. Ferreby. | Joseph D. Fegan. 
John Lubbers. 1 Dennis G. Butterfield. 
Nathan D. Hubbard. | 


Wm. MacQuigg. 1 Joseph H. Flint. 
Geo. F. Wetherell. 
Cornelius Teal. 

i 



TWENTY-SEVENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Dubuque, October 3, 1862, 
James I. Gilbert was commissioned colonel, Jed Lake lieutenant colonel and 
George W. Howard major. The regiment was ordered to St. Paul, Minne- 
sota,, to report to Gen. Pope, commanding the Army of the Northwest. 
Here Col. Gilbert, with six companies, was assigned as an escort to guard a 
paymaster and train from Fort Snelling to Mille Lacs. Accomplishing this, 
Col. Gilbert proceeded to Memphis, Tennessee, whither Maj. Howard with 
the remainder of the regiment had preceded him. 

As a part of Gen. Sherman's army, the regiment was then advanced 
against the Rebels under Price, strongly intrenched on the Tallahatchie 
river on the railroad below Waterford. Mississippi. Gen. Grant's army was 
at the same time moving down the railroad, with base of supplies at Holly 
Springs. The enemy retreating from the Tallahatchie, the Twenty-seventh 
was soon assigned to guarding railroad on the river. In the meantime, 
Holly Springs was lost to us, and Gen. Grant's expedition, with Vicksburg 
for its object, was abruptly brought to a close. December 31st, the regi- 
ment, except Company G, serving as train guard, was sent with re-enforce- 
ments to Gen. Sullivan, operating against the Rebels under Gen. Forrest 
near Lexington, Tennessee. But Forrest was defeated that same day by the 
victory of Parker's Cross Roads, where the Thirty-ninth Iowa fought so 
nobly. The Twenty-seventh joined in the pursuit. At the close of the year 
1862, the Twenty-seventh had lost 69 enlisted men. Nearly 200 more were 
lying in hospitals in seven different states. 

Until June 2, 1863, the regiment was at Jackson, Tennessee, performing 
provost, guard and picket duties. There were a number of marches into the 
country. One was to Corinth, where the regiment remained twenty days, 
while the troops, previously there under Gen. Dodge, made a succeessful 
raid to Tuscumbia, Alabama. A detachment of the regiment went once as 
train guard to Burnsville, Mississippi. From February 3d to the 28th, five 
companies were at Henderson Station as railroad guard. May 6th the com- 
panies were all distributed at various stations between Corjnth and Mem- 
phis. Early in June, Jackson was evacuated, when the regiment moved to 
Moscow, again guarding railway. June 6th, Lt.-Col. Lake was made com- 
mandant of the post at La Grange. Maj. Harvard took command of the 
regiment and until August 15th, Col. Gilbert of the brigade. August 20th, 
the regiment marched for Memphis. 

The next expedition was to Arkansas. At Brownsville the brigade joined 
the Army of Arkansas under Gen. Steele. This army captured Little Rock, 
September 10, 1863. The battery of the brigade was engaged, the infantry 
being in reserve. The regiment started November 15th for Memphis, report- 
ing to Gen. Hurlbut of the Sixteenth army corps. Here it did picket duty 
the remainder of the year 1863. 



THE TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. 535 

January 28, 1864, the regiment moved to Vicksburg. In the brigade of 
Col. Shaw of the Fourteenth Iowa, together with the Fourteenth and Thirty- 
second Iowa and Twenty-fourth Missouri, it participated in Gen. Sherman's 
Meridian raid. March 10th, with this gallant command, it embarked under 
Gen. A. J. Smith for Gen. Banks's Red River campaign. (See chapter 23.) 
Approaching Fort de Russey, the regiment was doing duty as provost guard 
in Marksville, until the army should pass. Accomplishing this it moved 
rapidly after the column, Col. Gilbert hurrying word forward that if a bat- 
tle were in prospect, the Twenty-seventh wished to be in it. Permission 
being accorded, the regiment joined in the charge, crossing the field, sprinsr- 
ing into the ditch, mounting the parapet and compelling surrender. Again 
at the hot battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9th, the Twenty-seventh bore an 
active and gallant part, suffering severe loss. Col. Gilbert was among the 
wounded. With its brave brigade it did the hardest fighting of the day. 
Covering the army on the grand retreat, there was continuous skirmishing 
and fighting. May 18th, occurred the battle of Yellow Bayou or OM Oaks, 
where Shaw's brigade was actively engaged. " It saved the army," said Col. 
Shaw. The Twenty-seventh lost 3 killed and 14 wounded. Among the lat- 
ter was Capt. Chas. A. Slocum. The command arrived at Vicksburg May 
24th. June 4th, it embarked for Memphis, but on the 5th debarked to dis- 
lodge the enemy at Ditch Bayou on Old River Lake, Chicot county, Arkansas. 
Col. Gilbert led the brigade and Maj. Howard the regiment. Routing the 
enemy, the command moved to Memphis. 

Next, the regiment was engaged in the expedition under A. J. Smith to 
Tupelo, Miss. In the battles of Tupelo and Old Town Creek, it was an act- 
ive participant. (See chapter 29.) In August, the regiment was in the 
Oxford expedition of Gen. Smith, returning to Memphis August 30th. Sep- 
tember 5th, it was ordered to Missouri, where in October, in the army of Gen. 
A. J. Smith, it joined in the pursuit of Price, returning to St. Louis Novem- 
ber 18th. November 25th, still in Gen. Smith's army, the regiment moved 
to Nashville, Tenn., debarking December 1st. In the battle of Nashville, 
December 15th and 16th, the regiment participated. (See chapter 28.) It 
was led by Lt.-Col. Lake. Col. Gilbert commanded the brigade, which was 
conspicuous for bravery. He was promoted brigadier general for gallantry. 
December 17th, the regiment joined in the pursuit of the enemy. January 
5, 1865, found the regiment at Eastport, Miss. On the 9th, it made a recon- 
noissance to Iuka. February 9th, it left to enter on the Mobile campaign. 
Leaving Dauphin Island on March 20th, on the 25th, with its command, it 
joined in the inarch with the Thirteenth and Sixteenth army corps, arriving 
near Mobile on the 26th. April 3d, the march was resumed toBlakely. The 
regiment engaged with honor in the siege and in the assault. (See chapter 
32.) It was led by Maj. Howard. With its brigade, under Gen. Gilbert, it 
occupied Blakely on the 10th. On the 13th, it marched for Montgomery. 

July 14th, 122 recruits, whose terms of service would expire later than 
October 1, 1865, were transferred from the Twenty-seventh Iowa to the 
Twelfth Iowa Infantry. After this, the Twenty-seventh was ordered to 
Vicksburg to be mustered out of the service. This was, however, delayed 
until August 8, 1865, when it was finally mustered out at Clinton, Iowa. Its 
record had been one of constant bravery and constant fidelity to the cause it 
had served. 

Col. Gilbert was made brigadier general February 9, 1865, and was bre- 
vetted major general March 26th, for gallantry at Blakelv 



536 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry. 

COLONELS. MAJOBS. 6UBGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 

James I. Gilbert. IGeo. W. Howard. IJohn E. Sanborn. IDaniel N. Bordwell. 

Jed Lake. |Sam'l W. Hemenway. | | Frederick F. Kiner. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. ASST. SURGEONS. QUABTEBMASTEB8. 



Jed Lake. 

Geo. W. Howard. 



Charles A. Comstock. 
P. J. Harrington. 
Chas. H. Lewis. 



Albert Boomer. I Solon M. Langworthy. 

David C. Hastings. Oliver P. Shiras. 
Geo. P. Smith. 



TWENTY-EIGHTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service October 10, 1862, at Iowa 
City. Wm. E. Miller was made colonel, John Connell lieutenant colonel, 
and Hugh B. Lynch major. A history of the regiment by its chaplain, J. 
T. Simmons, has been the principal source of data for this sketch. Setting 
out for the field, the Twenty-eighth reached Helena, Arkansas, November 
20th, and pitched its tents on the banks of the Mississippi. A detachment of 
300 under Maj. Lynch was in the expedition of Gen. Hovey into Mississippi, 
in aid of Gen. Grant's movement toward Vicksburg. Private Wm. M. Hall 
was shot by guerrillas. The expedition returned to Helena, December 7th. 
The experiences now suffered by the Twenty-eighth "in its wet and malarial 
camp were so bitter and depressing as to form the darkest picture in its 
whole career. They are a recapitulation of those of the Twenty-fourth. 
Sickness and death made fearful ravages. Typhoid and intermittent fever, 
measles, mumps and small-pox, all infected the camp. 

January 11, 1863, an expedition under Gen. Gorman was undertaken up 
the White river with the object of co-operating with McClernand against 
Arkansas Post. It was one of unprecedented exposure and suffering. At St. 
Charles the troops debarked in a severe rain, being ordered to take 
possession of the town which had been evacuated by the enemy. It 
required four hours to unload the transportation. Two hours later, at 
ten in the evening, without any apparent change in circumstances, they 
were ordered to reload. This labor occupied them until after daylight. 
About two in the morning, the rain changed to snow, with cutting northwest 
wind. The men worked in freezing mud and water over their shoe tops, 
their clothing wet through and frozen. At eleven in the forenoon they were 
aboard, on the open, icy decks. The day and night following were spent in this 
condition, and then they were permitted, to land at Clarendon and thaw and 
dry their clothing. From Duvall's Bluff the troops returned to Helena. The 
only result of this expedition was the suffering and loss among our own men. 
Some died on the way, others sickened to die in camp, and very many bore 
through life enfeebled health and ruined constitutions. February 14th, 
the regiment aided in the arduous labor of clearing out the obstructions in 
the Yazoo Pass. February 27th, Col. Miller resigned and Lt.-Col. Connell was 
promoted to the vacancy. April 11th, in preparation for the new Vicksburg 
campaign, the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa, Fifty-sixth Ohio and 
Forty-seventh Indiana were brigaded together under Col. black of the last 
named regiment, being designated as the Second Brigade, Twelfth division, 
Thirteenth army corps. Gen. Hovey commanded the division, Gen. McCler- 
nand the corps. 

From the transports which had run the blockade at Vicksburg, the troops 
witnessed the unsuccessful bombardment of Grand Gulf by our gunboats. 
Debarking, they marched to a point below. That night the fleet successfully 
ran the blockade, and the next morning our army embarked and moved 
down to Bruinsburg. At the battle of Port Gibson, May lst.the Twenty-eighth 
fought with gallantry — more like tried veterans than young volunteers. (See 



THE TWENTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY. 537 

chapter 18.) It was the promise of the heroism soon to be displayed on one 
of the bloodiest battle fields of the war. May 9th, Gen. Grant reviewed 
Hovey's division. The Thirteenth corps was now constantly marching, 
maneuvering and skirmishing 1 to hold the enemy's attention while Sherman 
and McPherson were pressing toward Jackson. 

May 16th was fought Champion Hills, that fierce battle where Hovey's 
command engaged with such marvelous courage and desperation. (See 
chapter 18.) Gen. Hovey exclaimed: "What shall I say of the Twenty- 
fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa!" These young regiments fought with a 
bravery never surpassed, and with fearful loss. May 25th, the regiment 
took its place in the line investing Vicksburg, doing its full share in the 
siege. Frequently one was killed in the trenches or even in camp. More 
were wounded; many sickened and died. Capt. B. W. Wilson had become 
lieutenant colonel at Helena. Now Capt. John Meyer became major, Maj. 
Lynch having resigned. July 4th, when Vicksburg fell, the regiment 
joined Sherman's army in pursuit of Johnston. It numbered only 250. 
When the siege of Jackson was concluded, it returned to Vicksburg, and in 
August, with its command, went to Carrollton, La. 

September 12th, the troops were reviewed by Generals Grant and Banks, 
and the next day an expedition under Banks into Louisiana was entered 
upon. It led up Bayou Teche to Opelousas and Vermillionville. The force 
included the Thirteenth and Nineteenth army corps and some cavalry. 
Christmas found the troops again in camp at Algiers, opposite New Orleans. 
The expedition had had little result. From January 19th, there was a six 
weeks' pleasant stay at Madisonville. 

February 26th. the division, the Third, under Gen. Cameron, was ordered 
to report at New Orleans, preparatory to joining in the Red river expedition. 
(For this campaign, see chapter 23.) The Third and Fourth divisions were 
detached from the Thirteenth army corps and commanded by Gen. Ransom. 
Via Alexandria and Natchitoches, the troops arrived on the evening of 
April 7th at Pleasant Hill, where they were hurried into line to support our 
cavalry, which was engaged. But the enemy had fallen back. On the 
morning of the 8th, the divisions moved forward, and in the afternoon took 
part in the battle of Mansfield. In this disastrous engagement the Twenty- 
eighth Iowa lost heavily. Col. Connell was wounded and captured, and lost 
an arm. Adjt. Strong was wounded. Lt.-Col. Wilson and Maj. Meyer being 
absent on recruiting service, Capt. Dillin took command. Gen. Ransom was 
severely wounded, and was succeeded by Gen. Cameron. The troops retreated 
and reached Pleasant Hill at daylight of the 9th. A battle being immi- 
nent, Cameron's divisions were hurried to Grand Ecore with the trains. 
This forced march followed twenty-four hours of marching and battle with- 
out sleep. The booming of cannon told of the fight at Pleasant Hill. It 
was 2 p. M. on the 10th when the worn-out troops went into camp. They 
had had one hour's sleep that morning. 

Banks soon followed with his whole army. April 24th began the general 
retreat. The Twenty-eighth, with its command, waded Cane river waist 
deep. No rations and night marching were the rule. Near Alexandria, the 
regiment, being thrown forward as skirmishers, had several wounded. 
Skirmishing continued two weeks. Morganza Bend was reached May 22d, 
and June loth the command embarked for Carrollton. Here Col. Connell 
returned to the regiment from imprisonment. Lt.-Col. Wilson had rejoined 
it during the retreat. July 4th, a stirring celebration was enjoyed at Thibo- 
deaux. 

July 6th, the regiment received orders to prepare for transportation to an 
unknown port. Out on the ocean the sealed orders were opened, and Vir- 
ginia proved to be the destination. The news was hailed with joy. It was 
going northward from the swamps and rebeldom of the South. The fame 
of our brave Iowa regiments had preceded them. The Twenty-second, the 
Twenty-fourth and the Twenty-eighth went from Washington to the Shen- 
andoah Valley, and in Gen. Sheridan's army, in the hot battles of .the Val- 



;38 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



ley campaign, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, added to the luster 
of their former achievements. In chapter 30, devoted to that campaign, 
their deeds are recorded. It was a glory purchased with blood, and the rec- 
ord of their dead and wounded saddens the memory of their brilliant deeds. 
The Twenty- eighth Iowa was led in these battles by Lt.-Col. Wilson, till 
early in the engagement of Cedar Creek, he was borne severely wounded 
from the field, and was succeeded by Maj. Meyer. 

About the beginning of 1865, the three Iowa regiments were transferred 
to the South, where, united later in the same brigade, they served at various 
points; Savannah, Morehead City, Newbern, Augusta and Hamburg. They 
were finally mustered out at Savannah— the Twenty-eighth Iowa on July 
31, 1865. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONKL8. 



SURGEONS. 



CHAPLAIN. 



Wra. E. Miller. 
John Conuell. 
Bartholomew W. Wil- 
son. 



Hugh B. Lynch. 
John Meyer. 
John W. Carr. 



John W. H. Vest. 
Wesley A. Daniels. 



John T. Simmons. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTER. 



John Connell. 
Bartholomew W. Wil- 
son. 
John Meyer. 



James E. Pritchard. 
Joseph G. Strong. 
J. Wright Wilson. 



Wm. B. L,athrop. 
Emanuel J. B. Statler. 
David Stewart. 
Boot. B. Canfleld. 
Wesley A. Daniels. 
Leroy S. Groves. 



Thomas Hushes. 



TWENTY-NINTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at, Council Bluffs, December 
1, 1862. Thomas H. Benton, Jr., was its colonel, R. F. Patterson, adju- 
tant of the Fifth Iowa, lieutenant colonel, C. B. Shoemaker major, and 
Jos. Lyman adjutant. The official history of the regiment is by Atljt. 
Lyman. The Twenty-ninth was sent to St. Louis and assigned the duty of 
guarding, for a few days, the military prison. On Christmas, it embarked 
for Helena, Arkansas, reporting for temporary duty at Columbus, Kentucky. 
Lt.-Col. Patterson was in command of the regiment, Col. Benton being 
detained in St. Louis. January 8, 1863, the regiment proceeded on its way 
to Helena, being assigned to the brigade of Brig. Gen. C. B. Fisk. With- 
out disembarking, it was ordered on the expedition up the White river 
under Gen. Gorman — the same participated in by the Twenty-fourth and 
Twenty- eighth Iowa, resulting in suffering and in fatal consequences to 
many. During the excessive cold and exposure of this trip, measles broke 
out in the regiment, so that 200 men were rendered unfit for duty. 

The Twenty-ninth engaged in the novel and picturesque expedition 
through the Yazoo Pass and Cold Water and Tallahatchie rivers to Fort 
Pemberton. After the felled trees obstructing the pass were cleared out, the 
steamers started on their venturesome voyage, the overhanging trees so dis- 
mantling them of everything affording a hold, that they came out as though 
from a fierce whirlwind. Alter this, the regiment remained at Helena, on 
post, garrison or scout duty, until the Little Rock expedition. 

On July 4th, the day made famous by three great victories, the regiment 
bore a gallant part in the battle of Helena, Arkansas. (See chapter 19.) 
Gen. Samuel A. Rice gives high praise to the Twenty-ninth Iowa, men- 
tioning especially Col. Benton, Lt.-Col. Patterson, and Maj. Shoemaker, and 
Col. Benton commended highly his lieutenant colonel and Adjt. Lyman. 
The regiment thus proved itself of the same true mettle by which num- 



THE TWENTY-NINTH INFANTRY. 539 

bers of our Iowa troops fresh from their homes won laurels in their first 
battle. Between August 11th, and September 10th, in the army of Gen. 
Steele, the regiment was on the march from Helena to Little Rock. Gen. 
Rice commanded its division and Col. Benton its brigade. The command 
halted a week at Clarendon where it crossed the White river. The route 
then led up the river to Duvall's Bluff, where a depot of supplies and a hos- 
pital were established. Grand Prairie, destitute of water, stretches between 
Duvall's Bluff and Brownsville. The excessive heat and dryness were fatal 
to the men. Many were sunstruck. The ambulances, unable to contain 
the sick, would carry as many as possible some distance along the route, 
deposit them under the heat of the sun and return for more. This lasted 
the greater portion of two days. At Brownsville, there was a halt of a few 
days. Gen. Rice's division made a rapid march to Bayou Metoe to cover a 
movement of Gen. Davidson's cavalry, in another direction. After some 
skirmishing, both commands returned to the main army which now 
advanced toward Little Rock. The Rebels under Price retreated and the 
city fell into our possession. 

In November, the regiment, with its brigade, under Gen. Rice, was sent 
out to intercept Marmaduke who had been repulsed, with heavy loss, in an 
attack upon Pine Bluff. The command proceeded to Rockport on the 
Washita river, without overtaking him. During the winter of 1863-4 the 
regiment remained at Little Rock. 

March 23, 1864, the regiment, in Gen. Steele's column, moved to the south- 
west, with the object of co-operating with Gen. Banks's force, moving up 
the Red River. This was called the Camden campaign, and during it, the 
Twenty-ninth Iowa was in five engagements — Terre Noir Bayou, Elkin's 
Ford, Prairie d'Anne, Liberty and Jenkins' Ferry. Col. Benton was in com- 
mand. (For campaign, see chapter 24.) At Terre Noir Bayou April 2d, the 
regiment was rear guard to the supply train, and had with it a section of 
battery. While passing through a narrow defile, there was a sudden dash 
on the rear by the enemy's cavalry. They were held in check by the rear 
guard and left wing of the regiment, till Col. Benton, by skillful disposition 
and use of his force was enabled to operate with effect against the enemy. 
A spirited engagement followed and lasted an hour and a half. The regi- 
ment lost severely. At Elkin's Ford, April 4th, the regiment lost 1, and at 
Prairie d'Anne, April 10th, 2. After resuming line of march toward Camden, 
one company of the Twenty -ninth was thrown forward as skirmishers, while 
the remainder of the regiment took position in the rear of Capt. Stranger s 
battery. The enemy having opened fire at Liberty, Col. Benton threw out a 
company of sharpshooters, to disable, if possible, his gunners and horses. 
At this point the regiment lost 4. After the enemy retreated, line of march 
was resumed. In the sanguinary engagement of Jenkins' Ferry, April 30th, 
the regiment fought bravely and lost heavily. The loss was increased by 
the capture of Asst-Surgeon Nicholson and 16 men who were left with the 
wounded — the aggregate loss being 108. 

At the close of the campaign, on returning to Little Rock, the regiment 
remained there nearly a year; except one month in July and August, when 
it was stationed at Lewisburg, fifty miles above, on the Arkansas. In Novem- 
ber it became city guard of the post of Little Rock. When Gen. Reynolds 
assumed command of the Department of Arkansas, the army was re-organ- 
ized. The Twenty-ninth was assigned to an organization known as the 
"Detached brigade of the Seventh army corps," Brig.-Gen. Carr command- 
ing. About February 1, 1865, Gen. Carr received orders to proceed to JNew 
Orleans, where the regiment went into quarters at Algiers, across the river. 
The Twenty-ninth was destined for the Mobile campaign. On the mil, 
it moved to Mobile point, Alabama. On the 23d, it debarked without tents 
or baggage and bivouacked on the sands at Navy Cove, three miles in the 
rear of Fort Morgan. March 17th, the army began the toilsome marcu on 
Mobile. On the 25th the regiment fell into line in the investment ot bpanisn 
Fort. It bore its part in the siege with courage and credit, and suttered a 



540 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



loss of 22 men. After the capture of Spanish Fort, it was in the force3 that 
marched to the aid of our army besieging Fort Blakely. It arrived in time 
to witness the grand assault by Gen Steele's army, on Sunday evening of 
April 9, 1865. Fort Blakely was carried. April 12th, the regiment entered 
Mobile, and the next day marched with its division to Mt. Vernon Arsenal, 
on the Tombigbee river, forty miles above the city. On the way, it partici- 
pated in its last skirmish with the enemy — among the last of the war. Col. 
Benton assuming command of the arsenal with his regiment as garrison, set 
to work at its renovation, the Rebels having before their retreat destroyed 
the beauty of this fine government property. 

May 1st, the regiment returned to Mobile, and June 1st sailed for Texas. 
Brazos Santiago was reached June 9th. Gen. Sheridan having assumed 
command of the military division of the Gulf, ordered the immediate muster 
out of the Twenty-ninth Iowa. In pursuance of this order, the regiment 
sailed for New Orleans in the latter part of July, and August 10th, was hon- 
orably mustered out of the United States service. Returning home it reached 
Davenport August 19th, numbering 765 officers and enlisted men. But of 
this number only 415 men were originally attached to the Twenty-ninth, the 
remainder being recruits of the Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third 
Iowa regiments, who had been assigned to Col. Benton's command a few 
weeks previously, when their regiments had returned home for disbandment. 

The regiment left an honorable record. Always prompt in duty, brave in 
action, cheerful in enduring hardship and well disciplined, it was never 
found wanting, and did its full part in winning respect and admiration for 
the soldierly qualities of our Iowa regiments. 

Col. Benton was brevetted brigadier general, December 15, 1864. Lt.-Col. 
Robt. F. Patterson was also later brevetted brigadier general. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Thos. H. Benton, jr. 


Chas. B. Shoemaker. 
Joseph Lyman. 


Wm. S. Grimes. 

Alex. Shaw. 

Wm. L. Nicholson. 


John M. Conrad. 
David Worcester. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 


ADJUTANT. ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 


Robt. F. Patterson. 


Joseph Lyman. 


Wm. L. Nicholson. 
David F. Eakin. 
Wm. Street. 
John H. Pace. 


Wm. W. Wilson. 
Chas. W. Oden. 



THE THIRTIETH IOWA INFANTRY. 

To Adjt. Gen. Alexander the author is indebted for this complete sketch 
of his regiment: 

The Thirtieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry was recruited in what was then 
the First Congressional District. Companies A and I were from Lee county, 
E and K from Washington, B and F from Davis, G and H from Jefferson, 
C from Des Moines, and D from Van Buren. A glance at the ages of 
the men at the time of the enlistment will account, in some measure, for the 
fiequent use of the expression " the boys," among veterans. In an average 
company twenty-seven were not of age; the average age of the entire com- 
pany was twenty-five years and the average age of ninety members was but 
twenty-three years. The command was rendezvoused at Keokuk by Sep- 
tember 2, 1862, was mustered into United States service September 23d, and 
left by steamboat for St. Louis October 25th, where it was almost imme- 
diately armed and equipped and took a transport direct for Helena, Arkansas. 
A detachment of the regiment formed a part of an expedition up White 



THE THIRTIETH INFANTRY. 541 

river, which started November 16th and returned to Helena on the 22d. On 
the 27th another detachment went with Gen. Hovey's expedition into Miss- 
issippi to the mouth of the Cold Water on the Tallab.atcb.ee river. On 
December 21st, the regiment embarked on that never to be forgotten steam- 
boat, the Stephen Decatur, and joined the fleet which moved under Geu. 
Sherman against Vicksburg. Disembarking December 25th, ten or twelva 
miles up the Yazoo river, the holiday week was spent in the Chickasaw Bayou 
campaign, where the regiment was, on December 29th, first under fire, and 
where it met its first casualties in battle. January 5, I860, the command em- 
barked for Arkansas Post, where it took part in the battle of January 11th, los- 
ing 5 killed and 40 wounded. After this engagement the regiment returned 
to a point on the Mississippi opposite Vicksburg, known as the Briggs planta- 
tion, which was its camp during the dreadful winter's work in the attempt 
to change the course of the Mississippi river by means of a canal. Thia 
work was interrupted only by an expedition to Greenville, Mississippi, which 
extended into the interior about fifty miles. On the 2d of May the regiment 
left its camp for the campaign against the rear of Vicksburg. It took part 
in the fight at Jackson on the 14th, and reached the enemy's works at Wal- 
nut Hills on the 18th, skirmished the 19th, 20th and 21st, and on the 22d 
made the memorable bayonet charge, resulting in a loss in not to exceed fif- 
teen minutes time, of 64 killed and wounded. The gallant Col. Abbott and 
brave Maj. Milliken were among the killed. Following this engagement the 
investment of Vicksburg was begun and the work of the siege carried on until 
the surrender of Pemberton, July 4th. Without an opportunity to see the cap- 
tured city, the regiment hastily marched to Jackson and Brandon, skirmish- 
ing and destroying railroads, after which it returned to Black River Bridge, 
where it went into camp, remaining till the 27th of September, when Sher- 
man's army started via Memphis to the relief of Chattanooga. Corinth, 
Mississippi, was reached October 8th, Iuka on the 10th, and Cherokee Station. 
Alabama, on the 21st, where in a sharp skirmish the regiment lost 27, killed 
and wounded. The able and much beloved Col. Torrence was among the 
killed. Chickasaw, Alabama, was reached October 31st, and left November 
3d. A march of seventeen days via Florence, Pulaski and Stevenson, brought 
the regiment to Bridgeport, Alabama. After a short halt the march was 
resumed and Lookout Valley reached November 23d. Gen. Osterhaus's 
division, to which the regiment was attached, owing to a broken bridge at 
Brown's Ferry, was here temporarily assigned to Gen. Hooker's command, 
with which it fought at Lookout Mountain, November 24th, Missionary 
Ridge on the 25th, and at Ringgold on the 26th. 

In these three engagements the loss was 3 killed and 25 wounded. The 
breaking of the bridge that sent the First division of the Fifteenth corps 
with Hooker instead of Sherman in these three fights, should make the sur- 
vivors of the First division kindly considerate at sight of a broken bridge. 
From Ringgold the regiment marched back, via Chattanooga and Bridge- 
port, to Woodville, Alabama, which point was reached December 27, 1863. 
During the entire term of the regiment's service, the camp at Woodville 
was tlie only one it ever occupied under any other conditions than to be 
ready to move at short notice. Here it remained continuously until May 2, 
1864, except a short period spent in guarding a ferry southwest of Hunts- 
ville. Starting May 2d, the march was via Stevenson, Bridgeport, Chatta- 
nooga, Gordon's Mills, Villanow and Snake Creek Gap, arriving at Resaca 
on the 13th. In action that day and the two succeeding ones, the I03S was 
5 killed and 28 wounded. The march being resumed, the Oostanaula river 
was crossed at Calhoun Ferry, Adamsville and Kingston, Ga. passed, and 
Dallas reached on the 25th. In repelling the assault at this latter place on 
the 28th, the loss was 1 killed and 1 wounded, the regiment fighting behind 
as fine a line of earthworks as it ever constructed. Moving from Dallas, 
June 2d, skirmishing continued all the way to Kenesaw Mountain, which 
was reached on the 10th, from which time until the abandonment of the 
position by the Rebels, July 3d, skirmishing was continuous. The next 



542 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

movement was via Marietta, Roswell and Decatur toward Atlanta, made 
memorable by the great battle on the left wing of the army, July 22d, fol- 
lowed by the one on the right wing, July 28th. The month of August was 
occupied with skirmishing and building earthworks, ending on the 31st with 
the unsuccessful attack by the enemy at Jonesboro. That night, Atlanta 
was evacuated. The campaign from May 2d to September 6th, cost the reg- 
iment 16 killed and 65 wounded. The most of September was spent at East 
Point. October 4th, the regiment joined in the pursuit of Hood, marching 
via Marietta, Resaca and Gaylesville to Gadsden. Sharp skirmishing occur- 
red on the pursuit, but there was no serious engagement, and November 4th 
the command again reached Atlanta. Next came the " march to the sea," 
beginning November 15th, and ending by the occupation of Savannah, 
December 21, 1864. The regiment was on provost \duty in the city until 
January 10, 1865, when it embarked on an ocean steamer for Beaufort, 
S. C, going into camp at Pocotaligo, from whence, on February 1st, the 
march "through the Carolinas" was begun, and Columbia, S. C, occupied 
on the morning of the 17th, after a most uncomfortable night in the passage 
of the Broad river and a sharp skirmish to get possession of the city. 
Cheraw was reached March 5th. On the 20th and 21st, at Bentonsville, 
N. C, occurred the most important action of the march, in which the regi- 
ment lost 1 man killed and 7 wounded. Goldsboro wasVeached on the 27th, 
and Raleigh, April 14th, where, on the 26th, occurred Gen. Johnston's sur- 
render to Gen. Sherman. Then came the glad march to Washington, pass- 
ing through Petersburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg, reaching Alexan- 
dria May 10th. 

On May 24th, occurred the grand review at Washington, by the President 
and Gen. Grant. Then came the camp at Crystal Springs, where active prep- 
arations began for the return home. The muster out occurred June 5th, and 
the journey toward beloved Iowa was soon begun. It proved to be a journey 
with a dreadfully sad feature to it. On June 8th, about one-half mile east 
of Summer Hill, Pennsylvania, on the Pennsylvania railway, the train 
upon which the regiment was traveling met with an accident resulting in 
the death of Sergt. C. P. Bradshaw of Company H, and the wounding of 
5 members of the same company, 3 members of Company E and 1 of Com- 
pany C. It seemed doubly sad that death and serious injuries should come 
to these poor fellows who had lived through three years of danger and hard- 
ship and had apparently got safely through all their trials. During the 
regiment's service, its commanders were: Col. Charles H. Abbott, Col. 
Wm. M. G. Torrenceand Lt.-Col. Aurelius Roberts. The brigade command- 
ers were Brigadier Generals John M. Thayer, James A. Williamson and 
George A. Stone. The division was practically, for the entire period, the 
First of the Fifteenth army corps, and was commanded by Major Generals 
Frederick Steele, P. J. Osterhaus and Charles R. Woods. From the start 
from Helena down the river in 1862, till the final muster out in 1865, the 
regiment was never from under the command of Gen. Sherman, except the 
few days above noted when it was with Gen. Hooker. The following is a 
summary of the engagements in which the regiment took part: 

Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Vicksburg, Jackson, Brandon, Cherokee 
Station, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Dallas, Big 
Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, Nickajack, Atlanta, Left of Atlanta, Lovejoy 
Station, Savannah, Columbia, Bentonsville, Raleigh. 

In the first and third of these engagements Col. Abbott was in command; 
in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth Col. Torrence, and in the remainder 
Lt.-Col. Roberts. In addition to the above battles there were very many 
skirmishes, which in an extended history would merit considerable atten- 
tion. The Thirtieth had more field officers killed in battle than any other 
Iowa regiment. It had, of officers of all grades, killed and died of wounds, 
9. The only regiments losing more heavily, were the Fifth, which lost 10, 
the Second which lost 12 and the Ninth which lost 13. From all the Iowa 
troops there were, of commissioned officers, killed and died of wounds, 223. 



THE THIRTY-FIRST INFANTRY. 



54b 



Of that number the Second, Fifth, Ninth, and Thirtieth infantry lost 42, 
nearly one-fifth of the entire loss. Of the regiments organized in the fall 
of 1862, the four losing most heavily in "wounded in action" were the 
Twenty-second which lost 267, the Twenty-fourth which lost 260, the 
Twenty-eighth which lost 262 and the Thirtieth which lost 222. Of the 
regiments organized in the fall of 1862, those having the greatest " total 
casualties " were the Twenty -eighth which had 696 and the Thirtieth which 
had 646. The Thirtieth took 973 men into the service and received after- 
ward 57 recruits. The brief though partial summary of the regiment's 
history is that it participated in twenty-one battles; that it had 73 men 
killed and died of wounds, 235 died of disease, 222 wounded and 19 cap- 
tured. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirtieth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Charles H. Abbott. 
Wm. M. G. Torrence. 


Lauren Dewey. 
Jas. P. Milliken. 
Robert D. Creamer. 


John W. Bond. 
David JtJ. Allen. 
Nathan L. Price. 
Saml. C. Rogers. 


John Burgess. 
Thos. W. Hyde. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 


Wm. M. G. Torrence. 
Aurelius Roberts. 


Edwin Reiner. 
James H. Clendening. 
Jas. M. Smith. 


Peter Walker. 
Chas. Or. Lewis. 
J. C. Stoddard. 
Nathan L. Price. 
Saml. C. Rogers. 


Saml. Townsend. 
John C. Lockwood. 



THIRTY-FIRST IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Davenport, Iowa, 
October 13, 1862. Wm. Smyth was made colonel; Jeremiah VV. Jenkins 
lieutenant colonel, and Ezekiel Cutler major. It was sent to Helena, 
Arkansas, arriving November 20th. November 27, it participated in the 
expedition of Gen. Hovey to Cold Water, Mississippi, in aid of the oper- 
ations of Gen. Grant. In Hovey's brigade of Steele's division, it engaged 
in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, December 27th, 28th and 29th. (See 
chapter 17.) January 11, 1863, it was actively engaged at the capture of 
Arkansas Post, and bore itself with courage and credit. From January 22d 
to April 2d, the regiment was in the unhealthy camp at Young's Point. 
Then it engaged under Steele in the expedition to Greenville and the Deer 
Creek raid which was to divert attention from Gen. Grant's main movement 
against Vicksburg. May 7th, in Grant's army, the regiment moved from 
Grand Gulf toward Jackson, Mississippi. It was under fire at Raymond 
on the 12th, and assisted in the capture of Jackson the 14th. It followed 
up the enemy after Champion Hills and on the 18th reached the rear of 
Vicksburg. 

The regiment was in the fierce assault of May 22d. Lt.-Col. Jenkins 
and Lieut. Jas. G. Dawson were among the wounded, and Lieut. Robert 
Anderson was killed. It took its lull part in the labors and dangers of 
the siege, and when Vickburg surrendered, July 4th, it joined with Sher- 
man's army in the siege of Jackson and subsequent pursuit of Johnston. 
It was in the skirmish at Canton. From July 27th to September 22d, it 
was in camp at Black river. It then moved with Sherman's Fifteenth 
corps to Memphis. September 29th, it moved to Corinth, Mississippi, 
whence, on October lith, it marched to Iuka and then to Cherokee. 
Here on October 21st, the regiment was severely engaged with rebel cavalry, 
and on the 26th and 27th, in a running fight with the enemy, driving 
him beyond Tuscumbia. On the 28th, the Tennessee river was crossed 



544 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

at Eastport, and with Sherman's entire corps the regiment marched east- 
ward, reaching Lookout valley on November 23d. 

In Osterhaus's division, the Thirty-first was conspicuously engaged, under 
Hooker, at the battle of Lookout Mountain, November 24th. On the 25th, 
it fought at Mission Ridge, Lieut. Thomas C. Bird being amoug the 
wounded. Again, pursuing the enemy, it fought at Ringgold, suffering 
much. (See chapter 21.) December 1st, it moved to_ Bridgeport, and on 
the 22d to Woodville, where, with its division, it went into winter quarters. 

May 1, 1864, the regiment started out on the great Atlanta campaign. 
(See chapter 25.) In Williamson's Iowa brigade it fought with conspicuous 
valor in the brilliant series of engagements now opening. The division was 
commanded by Osterhaus, and the corps, the Fifteenth, by Logan. May 
13th, at Resaca, Col. Jenkins was severely wounded. At Dallas, at Big 
Shanty, Kenesaw, Jonesboro and Lovejoy, and in all the intervening march- 
ing and skirmishing, the regiment was brave, active and faithful. From 
July 14th to August 2d, it was detailed from its brigade for guard duty. 
October 4th, it moved with the army in pursuit of Hood, skirmishing at 
various points. November 15th, with its command, it joined in Sherman's 
novel and successful march to the sea, entering Savannah December 21st. 
(See chapter 27.) The regiment had been led variously by Col. Smyth, 
Lt.-Col. Jenkins and Maj. Stimming, the first two officers being at times in 
charge of a brigade. Col. Smyth resigned December 15, 1864, when Lt.-Col. 
Jenkins took command. 

January 19, 1865, the march northward was begun. (See chapter 31.) 
The gallant Col. Stone of the Twenty-fifth now led the Iowa brigade, which 
included the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first Iowa 
regiments. Through the courtesy of Maj. S. S. Farwell of the Thirty-first 
Iowa, the author has obtained interesting particulars of this march, some 
of which he quotes as they are given in the major's interesting narrative. 
It was on the Edisto river that Private Oliver Welch of Company H cap- 
tured alone four armed rebel veterans, bringing them two miles to our lines, 
they under the belief that tiiey were surrounded. At Columbia the princi- 
pal role fell to Col. Stone's brigade. The capital of South Carolina rose in 
beauty above the banks of the Congaree and in front of the union army, 
drawn up in line of battle only a mile away. To reach here, our soldiers 
had passed Camp Sorghum, where the Rebels had kept 1,600 union officers 
imprisoned. The stakes which marked the dead line were still standing, 
and the holes were there, where, without shelter, they had burrowed in the 
earth, covering the holes first with branches of trees and then with earth. 
The graves of eight officers were seen, who had been wantonly shot. Instead 
of crossing the Congaree, the army moved up above where the Saluda and 
Broad unite, crossing first the Saluda. At 2 a. m. of February 17th, two 
boats were lashed together, and 60 men of Col. Stone's brigade, under Capt. 
Bowman of the Ninth and Capt. Farwell of the Thirty-first Iowa, crossed 
the Broad river, took position and were soon followed by the brigade. At 
sunrise the line advanced and drove the Rebeis. Three of the Thirty-first 
were wounded. 

"The brigade was ready for another advance, when the ciy, ' The white 
flag is coming! ' was heard. Looking toward the city, we beheld a carriage 
approaching, bearing two large white flags. Col. Stone advanced a little 
way to meet it, and an old man, alighting, announced that he was mayor of 
the city of Columbia, and that he came to surrender a defenseless city of 
old men, women and children into our hands. Col. Stone accepted the sur- 
render, and, taking the Thirty-first Iowa flag, unfolded it to the breeze on 
top of the carriage over the mayor's head. Then forming his brigade, the 
Thirty-first in advance, he started to occupy the nest egg of the Rebellion. 
Upon entering the city, crowds of negroes greeted us with the most extrava- 
gant expressions of joy. As we advanced down the crowded street, the 
scene was simply indescribable. On all sides were heard shouts of 'Glory! 
Glory!' 'The year of jubilee has come!' 'We are all free now!' accompan- 



THE THIRTY-FIRST INFANTRY. 545 

ied with snatches of song, dancing and hugging one another. One young 
woman, so white that only an experienced person could detect African blood, 
seized Col. Jenkins by the arm, shouting, 'Yesterday I was a slave; to-day I 
am free! We are all free now!' This is but a sample of what was being 
enacted all along the line. It seemed as though we were an army of deliv- 
erers (as in fact to the slaves we were) instead of hated conquerors and 
invaders. 

"While the scenes above described were being enacted, the flag of the 
Thirty-first Iowa was being unfurled to the breeze on the State House. The 
soldier is seldom enthusiastic, but at this moment I saw none but were crazy 
with delight. To think that that old emblem which had been torn down, 
despised, spit upon and subjected to every indignity by these people for four 
long years, was now vindicated and waving in glory and triumph over their 
heads and on the very State House in which treason^ first became an accom- 
plished and awful reality, was so grand and inspiring we_ could only wish 
that every lover of the old Stars and Stripes could have witnessed the sight 
and shared in our triumph and exaltation. While the excitement was at its 
highest pitch, Gen. Sherman entered the city accompanied by Howard and 
Logan. Our brigade received them with rousing cheers, which Gen. Sher- 
man acknowledged by raising his hat and riding along the lines with 
uncovered head. 

" When the city surrendered, the rebel flags were all taken down and 
secreted; but in a few instances they were_ discovered, and one of them, a 
large Palmetto banner, is still in the possession of Maj. Farwell of Monticello. 
Col. Jenkins was now appointed provost marshal, and the Thirty-first Iowa 
detached as provost guard. 

"We found that nearly 2,000 captured union officers had been confined in 
a stockade in the very heart of the city up to within two days of our arrival. 
Before the surrender of the town it was attempted to remove these prisoners 
to other prisons. Quite a number escaped, and with the assistance of 
negroes secreted themselves till our arrival. Their joy as they met the boys 
in blue, and realized that they were again under the Stars and Stripes, no pen 
nor tongue has the power to describe. It mattered not from what army they 
came or where captured, their arms were around us in fraternal embrace, 
and old soldiers who had faced death on many a battle field, wept like 
children." 

The tales of captivity, of cruelty, insult and starvation roused_ the fiery 
indignation of the union soldiers. The writer of this book can testify to the 
fidelity of this vivid narration. He was one of these escaped union prison- 
ers. Columbia burned down and the march was resumed. 

" A great many negroes came with us from Columbia, and their numbers 
reached thousands before we got to Fayetteville. Clothed in rags, barefoot, 
the women carrying their beds and little household goods on their heads, 
babies in their arms, and little children trudging along by their sides, all 
walking through the rain and the mud by the side of the marching troops, 
they went out into the great, unknown world to find freedom." 

At Cheraw, several of the regiment were injured by the explosion of the 
powder magazine. At Bentonsville, Col. Stone's brigade was hotly engaged, 
the Twenty-fifth Iowa especially losing heavily. The Thirty-first Iowa lost 
5. At night, sent out as advance pickets, while the line was being deter- 
mined by Capt. Farwell, a Rebel rose and fired, seriously wounding Lieut. 
Maloney. The Rebels withdrew the next morning, and the battle was over. 
March was resumed. At Golchboro, the sick and wounded were cared for, 
and the army was relieved of its vast following of negroes. April 12th, 
while the army was marching, the roar of thousands of voices was 
heard in the rear. "It came nearer and nearer, when a rider appeared 
going at full speed and shouting as he passed each regiment, ' Lee has 
surrendered to Grant. ' The boys all took up the shout till the whole 
army joined." Then followed the news of Lincoln's death, and Gen. Grant 

I. W. T.— 35 & 



546 



IOWA 1ST WAR TIMES. 



came to the army at Raleigh. The march went on to Washington, where 
the regiment took place in the grand review. Jt was mustered out of the 
service at Louisville, Kentucky, June 27, 186-3. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-first loiva Infantry. 



COLONELS. MAJORS. 


8URGE0NS. 


CHAPLArN. 


Wm. Smyth. 
Jeremiah W. Jenkins. 


Ezekiel Cutier. 
Theodore Stimming. 
Sewell S. Farwell. 


Garretson L. Carhart. 
Horace H. Gates. 


Daniel S. Starr. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS . 


Jeremiah W. Jenkins. 
Theodore Stimming. 


Edwin 0. Blacktnar. 
Joseph C. Carr. 
Moore Briggs. 
Joseph Rosenbaum. 


Lucius H. French. 
Christopher I. Dawson 
Elisha T. Taylor. 
Abram B. Hershe. 
Horace H. Gates. 


Albert J. Twogood. 
Levi H. Mason. 
John W. Gilman. 



THIRTY-SECOND IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Dubuque, October 6, 1862. 
John Scott was made colonel, Edward H. Mix lieutenant colonel, and Gus- 
tavus A. Eberhart major. The regiment was sent to St. Louis. There Gen. 
Curtis ordered six companies, B, C, E, H, I and K, to proceed to New Mad- 
rid, where regimental headquarters should be established — and four com- 
panies, A, D, F and G, to Cape Girardeau. These detachments remained 
separate until March 4, 1864. 

At New Madrid, a large part of the duty was to prevent the furnishing of 
contraband goods to the Rebels. Col. Scott entered upon its prosecution 
with vigor and fidelity. Lieut. Converse was provost marshal. December 
17, 1862, Companies C and I, under Capt. Peebles, started on an expedition 
west of New Madrid, during which they captured from the enemy 5 com- 
missioned officers, 3 enlisted men, 35 horses and 50 head of cattle. The 
expedition returned on the 22d. Col. Scott also, with 20 men, examined the 
various points on the river between New Madrid and Cape Girardeau, where 
trade or smuggling was practicable. On his return, he brought a scouting 
party, 50 strong, from Cape Girardeau to Lane's Landing, from which place 
they returned to Cape Girardeau through the interior, making a successful 
reconnoissance. They had prisoners and some captured stock. The party 
was under command of Capt. Roszell. 

December 29th, New Madrid being evacuated by order of Gen. Davies, 
commanding the district of Columbus, the detachment moved to Fort Pil- 
low, Tenn. April 1, 1863, Company B was ordered to Fulton, Tenn., and 
June 20th, the entire detachment to Columbus, Ky. Here the regiment 
was sent on an expedition to Union City. July 11th, Col. Scott was placed 
in command of the post. Company C, Capt. Peebles, was here attached to 
the Fourth Missouri cavalry as mounted infantry, and engaged in arduous 
duties. They were in the expedition of twenty days to Jackson, under Gen. 
A. J. Smith, in the extreme cold of December and January. Company E, 
Capt. Jones, was placed on duty at Fort Quinby, near Columbus, and Com- 
panies H and K, under Capt. Benson, were sent to Island No. 10. The 
duties at Island No. 10 were largely in protecting the contraband colony and 
in guarding public stores. There were expeditions to either shore, and some 
lighting. In one of these affairs, October 22d, Private John D. Baker of 
Company H was killed by guerrillas. Only Companies B and I remained 
on duty at regimental headquarters. Capt. Miller was in command in the 
absence of Lt.-Col. Mix, who was president of court martial at Cairo, 111. 

About January 20, 1864, the six companies of the detachment were col- 
lected and embarked for Vicksburg. There the detachment was assigned to 



THE THIRTY-SECOND INFANTRY. 547 

the Second brigade, Third division, Sixteenth army corps. Col. W. T. Shaw 
commanded the brigade, Gen. A. J. Smith the division, and Maj. Gen. S. A. 
Hurlbut the corps. This detachment of the Thirty-second participated, 
with its command, in the famous and successful Meridian raid of Gen. 
Sherman into Central Alabama, in which the railroads were torn up and 
destroyed. The enemy was constantly near — sometimes skirmishing, often 
threatening a battle. Rations were often deficient, and there was much 
marching by night. February 28th, near Canton, a forage train of 22 
teams, guarded by 25 men of Company C, under Capt. Peebles, was attacked 
by mounted Rebels 300 strong. A gallant resistance was made, the fight 
lasting over half an hour. Private Edward Flood was killed. The Rebels 
admitted a loss of 25 killed and wounded. The train escaped with a loss of 
eight teams captured — due to a panic among the teamsters. The cam- 
paign lasted from February 3 to March 4, 1864. 

The detachment of the Thirty-second Iowa under Maj. Eberhart, 
which had been sent to Cape Girardeau was attached to a cavalry division 
under Gen. Davidson. His appreciation of its courage and fidelity was 
expressed in a special order when the detachment left for Vicksburg to 
rejoin the regiment. The first expedition undertaken by this detachment, 
under command of Capt. Roszel, has been noted. March 14, 1863, and 
April 21, there were expeditions to Bloomfield. Returning from the latter to 
Cape Girardeau, our troops were attacked on the 25th. The enemy was 
repulsed. Patrick Burns, Company A, of the Thirty-second, was captured 
while on picket. March 28th, there was another expedition toward Bloom- 
field, and July 11th, still another. The regiment was then attached to 
Reserve brigade, First cavalry division, Department of Missouri. On the 
19th, as guard to the supply train, it made a severe march of 10 days to 
Arkansas. Arrived at Wittsburg the detachment remained until August 
1st. It then marched to Clarendon, arriving on the 8th. 

August 12th, orders were received to accompany the gunboat fleet on an 
expedition up the White river to be commanded by Capt. Bache, U. S. N. 
Companies A and D, under Capt. De Tar, embarked on the gunboat Cricket, 
and Companies F and G, under Capt. Roszell, on the Marmora. At Des 
Arc a few prisoners were taken, and a warehouse full of confederate stores 
destroyed. The Cricket was ordered up Little Red river in search of rebel 
transports, and came back with two prize steamers which she had overtaken 
and captured at Searcy. Finding there a pontoon bridge, Company A 
destroyed it, thus severing the two parts of Marmaduke's army. Company 
D assisted by deploying as skirmishers. On their return the boats were 
attacked by about 300 of the enemy. Company D lost Private George Fox, 
killed. The Rebels were repulsed and lost severely. Our force disembarked 
at Clarendon August 15th. Here, August 16th, the detachment aided in 
covering the crossing of its division. A slight skirmish took place. On the 
25th, it marched to Duvall's Bluff with supply train, and returned with 
the same to Brownsville. 

August 27th, the detachment had 160 men fit for duty. Mounted in 
wagons, these advanced with the division to feel the enemy at Bayou 
Metaire. Within four miles of there, the enemy being met by our advance, 
the detachment was thrown forward with three squadrons of the Third Mis- 
souri cavalry dismounted. Skirmishing through the thickets three miles, a 
line of works was discovered, charged on the double-quick, and taken. After 
skirmishing across the bayou till near evening, the detachment of the Thirty- 
second Iowa covered the rear of the division on its return to Brownsville. 
Company D lost 1 man killed and 2 wounded. In the night, the men were 
drenched by a heavy rain. All of this exposure, fatigue and fighting 
resulted in leaving only 50 men of the detachment fit for duty, when it was 
ordered, September 1st, to escort the supply train to White river. On enter- 
ing Little Rock, September 11th, two months after leaving Cape Girardeau 
with 250, there was scarcely an able-bodied man. The detachment had in 
this time marched five hundred miles with cavalry. 



548 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

January 31, 1864, the detachment started for Vicksburg, where it went 
into camp to await the return of the other part of its regiment from the 
Meridian raid. March 4th, the regiment was reunited. March 10th, the 
Thirty-second Iowa entered on the Red river expedition. In Gen. Smith's 
division and Col. Shaw's brigade, it bore a gallant part in the marches and 
the battles of the campaign. (See chapter 23.) At the storming of Fort 
de Russey, the brigade played a brilliant role. 

April 9th, in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Gen. Smith's division was ordered 
to the front, and Col. Shaw's brigade, including the Fourteenth, Twenty- 
seventh, and Thirty-second Iowa and Twenty-fourth Missouri, was in tht 
advance. Thi3 brigade did the hardest fighting of the day. It seems 
almost incredible that the Thirty-second, cut off from its brigade and 
entirely surrounded, with nearly one-half of its numbers killed or wounded, 
not only held its own, but near dark fought its way through, and joining 
our advanced troops, the Thiity-fifth Iowa under Col. Hill, in less than thirty 
minutes was ready to meet the enemy again. Lt.-Col. Mix and Adjt. Hunt- 
ley were among the slain. 

On Gen. Banks's retreat, Col. Shaw's brigade was ordered to fall in and 
cover the retreat of the army. Bringing up the rear, skirmishing and fight- 
ing, the long retreat continued. At the battle of Bayou de Glaize during 
the retreat, on May 18th, the Thirty-second was actively engaged. Maj. 
Eberhart commanded. The casualties were 5 wounded, among them Lieut. 
Wm. D. Templin of Company E. To the promptitude of action of Capt. 
Crane of the Fourteenth Iowa, Col. Gilbert of the Twenty-seventh, and Maj. 
Eberhart of the Thirty-second, Col. Shaw attributed the safety of our army 
at this point. May 23d, the command arrived at Vicksburg. Here Col. 
Scott resigned his position, thus far so gallantly filled. 

June 6th, at Point Chicot, in a sharp engagement of only a few minutes 
duration, the Thirty-second Iowa lost 4 killed and 4 wounded. This point 
or peninsula between Vicksburg and Memphis was occupied at its neck by 
Marmaduke, who from this vantage point could obstf uct the passage of boats 
at two points by attacking above or below. Gen. Smith moved suddenly 
against him and dislodged his force. Col. Gilbert of the Twenty-seventh 
Iowa commanded the brigade. June 10th, the command reached Memphis. 

In the Tupelo campaign under Gen. Smith, the Thirty-second participated. 
(See chapter 29.) It returned to Memphis July 24th. August 4th it joined 
in the Oxford expedition, reaching Memphis again on the30th._ In Gen. 
Smith's command the regiment was now transferred to Missouri, where it 
was kept constantly marching to different points in pursuit of Price. Octo- 
ber 25th it left St. Louis for Nashville, Tennessee. Arrived there, it imme- 
diately engaged in intrenching. In the battle of Nashville, December 15th 
and 16th, the regiment participated, in Col. Gilbert's brigade^ and Gen. 
Smith's division. (See chapter 28.) In the final charge on the afternoon of 
the 16th, the regiment captured Borguchoud's battery of 5 guns with 50 
prisoners, losing 1 man killed and 25 wounded. December 31, 1864, the 
entire command of which the Thirty-second formed a part was on the march 
toward Clifton, to embark for Eastport, Mississippi. 

Next we find Gen. Smith's command on its way to take part in the Mobile 
campaign. The .regiment was thus present at the siege and capture of 
Spanish Fort. (See chapter 32.) After the storming of Blakely and the 
fall of Mobile it remained in Alabama till sent home to Clinton, Iowa, where 
it was mustered out of the service August 24, 1865. It left a proud record 
for gallantry. 



THE THIRTY-THIRD INFANTRY. 549 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty -second Iowa Infantry, 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


John Scott. 
Gustavus A. Eberhart. 


Gustavus A. Eberhart. 
Jonathan Hutchinson. 
John R. Jones. 


Stephen B. Olney. 
Philander Byam. 


Lorenzo S. Coffin. 
Joseph Cadwallader. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


Edward H. Mix. 
Gustavus A. Eberhart. 
Jonathan Hutchinson. 


Charles Aldrich. 
Charles H. Huntley. 
Wm. Ii. Carpenter. 


Jesse Wasson. 
Wm. B. Waters. 
Philander Byam. 
Wm. L. Huston. 
Wm. B. Church. 


Thos. C. McCall. 
Morrison Bailey. 



THIRTY-THIRD IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Oskaloosa, October 4, 1862 
Samuel A. Rice, attorney general of the state, was made colonel, Cyrus H. 
Mackey lieutenant colonel and Hiram D. Gibson major. An interesting 
history of the 1 hirty-third Iowa, by A. F. Sperry, musician in the regiment, 
furnishes a large part of the material for this sketch. 

November 20th, the Thirty-third set out for the war. At St. Louis, march- 
ing by Gen. Curtis with soldierly step, it finds favor in his eyes and he com- 
pliments it highly. It is placed on duty in the city. Early December 21st, 
the Thirty-third was on its way down the river. It landed on the 24th at 
Columbus, Kentucky, to aid in repelling an expected attack. New Year's 
day the regiment was ordered to Union City, Tenn., returning January o, 
1863, to Columbus. January 8th, it set out for Helena, Arkansas, which city 
did not prove more agreeable or healthful than to our other Iowa regiments. 
It was a question whether it always stormed at Helena. There was a brief 
view of the "glory of war," when Gen. Grant passed down the river toward 
Vicksburg with a part of his army — colors streaming, bands playing and 
the men shouting. The boys longed for more stirring scenes— a wish soon 
realized. 

The Thirty-third was a part of the force engaged in clearing out the 
obstructions in the Yazoo Pass, in pursuance of Gen. Grant's plan to thus 
communicate with the Yazoo river, and approach Vicksburg. The pass is a 
narrow channel connecting the Mississippi with Coldwater river, about 
seven miles below Helena, and on the opposite side of the Mississippi. 
'1 he channel passes through Moon Lake. The Coldwater flows then in a 
southerly direction till it enters the Tallahatchie, which river pursues a simi- 
lar course and flows into the Yazoo. The Yazoo river empties into the Mis- 
sissippi a short distance above Vicksburg. Oar troops had cut through the 
levee on the Mississippi, and the high water of the river rushing into the 
pass, flooded the adjacent region. The trees which the Rebels had felled 
into and across the channel, to impede the enterprise, had now to be removed 
by fastening ropes around them and dragging them out. In this swampy 
region, with mud and water underfoot, and a rainy sky overhead, with 
only woolen blankets for shelter, " active service " was experienced. Com- 
pany B lost several by capture. This labor accomplished, the command 
returned to Helena to join at once in the Yazoo Pass expedition. (See chap- 
ter 17.) The regiment was in Gen. Fisk's brigade of Gen. Ross's division. 
The channels of the streams were narrow and deep, the branches of the trees 
raked the steamei-s as they passed, and the current was swift, with abrupt 
bendings. The Tallahatchie is so crooked that standing on one boat and 
looking at the others, it was hardly possible to tell whether they were in 
advance or behind. It was an adventuresome trip. Helena was reached 
again on April 8th. 



550 IOWA IN AVAK TIMES. 

May 1st, the regiment was ordered out after some rebel cavalry, returning 1 
next day. May 6th, under Lt.-Col. Maekey, it formed part of a reconnoiter- 
ing force under Col. Rice, returning on the 13th. May 23d, Gen. Prentiss 
held a grand review of all the troops at Helena. Col. Rice was made 
brigadier general August 4th, and was succeeded in the regiment by Lt.-Col. 
Maekey. 

July 4th, at the bravely won battle of Helena, the Thirty-third Iowa 
fought its first fight and fought it valiantly. (See chapter 19.) The battle 
lasted from 2 in the morning till 11, and our garrison was attacked by 
more than four times its number. The Thirty-third, in this baptismal 
battle, lost heavily. The regimental colors planted on the breastworks were 
cut by 27 bullets. Companies B and G were in a charge that captured three 
or four times as many prisoners as there were captors. Private Moore of Com- 
pany G captured 5 prisoners alone. Sickness from malaria and loss in battle 
had reduced the number of the regiment to 285 effective men. 

August 11th, the division under command of Gen. Rice took up line of 
march in the expedition of Gen. Steele against Little Rock. It was a try- 
ing march, but when Little Rock was reached, the joyful news of its 
capture and occupation by Gen. Davidson's cavalry was received. Sep- 
tember 15, Gen. Rice's division entered the city. At Little Rock rations 
were reduced to one-quarter. On home-made graters the men grated 
corn for bread. Log barracks were constructed for winter, and chimnej-s 
made of brickbats, sticks and mud. October 26th, the Thirty-third par- 
ticipated in an expedition to Benton, 25 miles south. The brigade now 
comprised the Twenty-ninth and Thirty-third Iowa and the Ninth and 
Twenty-eighth Wisconsin. The ranks of the Thirty-third had been greatly 
thinned by sickness. November 15th, Capt. Lofland, with a party, went to 
Iowa to obtain recruits. Christmas was celebrated in camp by a more lib- 
eral bill of fare, " Mashed potatoes" were much enjoyed. Company C was 
treated by its officers to roast pig and oysters. 

March 23, 1864, the Camden expedition under Gen. Steele was undertaken. 
It was intended to join Gen. Banks at Shreveport. (For campaign, see chap- 
ter 24) It was a hard march, with light clothing, cold nights and half 
rations. The Rebels continually harassed the march, and light skirmishing 
took place. April 4th, the regiment was in hearing of the engagement at 
Elkin's Ford. At Prairie d'Anne, it played its full part in the brilliant mil- 
itary pageant. Private Win. P. Funk, of Company I, was mortally wounded. 
April 14th, Gen. Rice's brigade was ordered on a forced march to a cross 
road. Rations were drawn and distributed on the move. Darkness drew on 
and it was nine when the command camped. It was too cold to sleep with- 
out the blankets which were left behind, but rails were plentiful for fires. 
At 4 :30 in the morning reveille sounded. There was advancing and fight- 
ing all day. This is called the battle of Camden. At 6:30 p. m., the com- 
mand entered the place. 

The dismal outlook at Camden and the combats at Poison Springs and 
Mark's Mills are given in chapter 24. Rations were reduced to one-quarter. 
April 20th, a supply train from Little Rock, under Col. Maekey of the 
Thirty-third, came in. The colonel took command of his regiment. Maj. 
Gibson, who had led it in his absence, resigned and left Camden with the 
return train under Lt.-Col. Drake of the Thirty-sixth Iowa, being captured 
with that force at Mark's Mills. 

On the night of April 25th, came orders to prepare to march. It was the 
beginning of the retreat — a retreat fraught with danger and great suffering 
from cold, hunger and fatigue. It was interrupted on April 30, 1864, by the 
sanguinary battle of Jenkins' Ferry. The Thirty-third Iowa was in the hot- 
test of that long fight and displayed unsurpassed bravery and endurance. 
Col. Maekey was wounded and Maj. Boydston took command. On the further 
retreat, Gen. Rice's division was in the front and the Thirty-third Iowa was 
train guard. After almost incredible suffering Little Rock was reached. The 
regiment was again in camp, with enough to eat, time to rest and letters 



THE THIRTY-THIRD INFANTRY. 551 

from home. Capt. John Lofland, Company D, was promoted lieutenant 
colonel and assumed command of the regiment. Acting Adjt., Lieut. C. H. 
Sharman of Company G, now began preparing an entire new set of regi- 
mental books, they having been burned during the retreat from Camden. 
June 6th, Maj. Gen. Sickles reviewed the division, and June 20th Col. 
Marcy of the regular army reviewed the brigade. July 3d, Maj. H. D. Gib- 
son, released from rebel prison, where he had endured much, reached Little 
Rock on foot, and was soon home in the North. 

The news of the death of Gen. Samuel A. Rice from wounds received at 
Jenkins' Ferry was received on the 21st. Half-hour guns were fired during 
the day in honor of his memory. Details were now frequently made to 
guard boats taking provisions to Fort Smith and other points. On one of 
these trips 1 man of the Thirty-third was mortally wounded. Col. Mackey, 
now sufficiently recovered, returned and resumed command of his regiment. 
October 30th, the Thirty-third Iowa, with a section of the Third Iowa bat- 
tery, started to Fort Smith as escort for a train of supplies. Re-enforce- 
ments were met on the way. The expedition returned in twenty-nine days, 
bringing 40 prisoners. January 20, 1865, the regiment was inspected by 
Maj. Gen. Reynolds, commanding the department, and was complimented. 
January 21st, it participated in an expedition under Gen. Carr, to Mt. Elba, 
Arkansas, on the Saline river, returning February 4th. 

February 14th, the regiment left Little Rock under orders to report to 
Maj. Gen. Canby at New Orleans for the Mobile campaign. At Navy Cove, 
the regiment was transferred to the Thirteenth army corps, and attached to 
the Third brigade, Third division. Col. Krez of the Twenty-seventh Wis- 
consin commanded the brigade, Gen. Wm. P. Benton the division and Maj 
Gen. Granger the corps. March 17th, the Thirteenth army corps moved 
through the pine forests interspersed with lakes along Mobile Bay. Miles of 
corduroy roads were constructed for the trains. When Fish river was 
reached, every band played "Out of the Wilderness," as it marched over the 
bridge. Spanish Fort was invested and was taken on April 8th. (See chap- 
ter '62.) April 9th, the regiment moved with its command to Fort Blakely, 
arriving just as the assault had succeeded. The command then left for 
Mobile. The following clay at Whistler's station there was a slight skir- 
mish. April 19th, the command went to Mcintosh's Bluff, leaving the Twenty- 
ninth Iowa at Mt. Vernon. It then returned to Mobile and was ordered to 
Texas. Brazos Santiago was reached June 7th. The regiment moved to 
the Rio Grande. July 4th, it re-embarked for New Orleans, where on July 
17th, 1865. it was mustered out of the service. Arriving in Iowa, the regi- 
ment quartered on Rock Island till August 7th, when it was finally dis- 
banded. 

Samuel A. Rice, first colonel of the Thirty-third, was a man beloved and 
esteemed in every relation of life. He became brigadier general August 4, 
I860, and died at home July 6, 1864, of wounds received at Jenkins' Ferry. 
His regiment erected at Oskaloosa an appropriate monument to his memory. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-third Iowa Infantry. 

COLONELS. MAJORS. SURGEONS. CHAPLAINS. 

Saml. Allen Rice. IHiram D. Gibson. 1 Arad Parks. IRobt. A. McAyeal. 

Cyrus H. Mackey. |cyrus B. Boydston. I John Y. Hopkins. iFrances M. Slusser. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. ADJUTANTS. I ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 

Cyrus H. Mackey. [Frederick F. Burlock.jJobn Y. Hopkins. IHenry B. Myers. 

John Lofland. Ichas. H. Sharrnan. |wm. M. Scott. |Bugene W. Rice. 



552 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



THIRTY-FOURTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

This regiment was mustered into the service at Burlington, October 15, 
1862. Geo. W. Clark was made^ colonel. He was one of four brothers who. 
with a brother-in-law, enlisted in the Thirty-fourth. The last died in the 
service, and the oldest brother later, in consequence of injuries there received. 
Warren S. Dungan was lieutenant colonel, and Racine D. Kellogg major. 

While in camp at Burlington, measles broke out, there being six hun- 
dred cases. Pneumonia followed and was often fatal. The regiment was 
ordered to report to Gen. Steele at Helena, and arrived there December 5th. 
There, small-pox appeared, notwithstanding which the regiment was placed 
in Thayer's brigade of Steele's division. In this command it participated in 
the disastrous battle of Chickasaw Bayou under Gen. Sherman. (See chap- 
ter 17.) The regiment, with its command, now took part in the capture of 
Arkansas Post, acquitting itself with honor. Capt. Dan. H. Lyons was 
among the mortally wounded ._ 

The small-pox had by this time appeared in many cases and together with 
the exposure by having been crowded on transports, had greatly reduced the 
strength of the regiment. Col. Clark was ordered to take it with five com- 
panies from another regiment, and guard the prisoners, 5,000 in number, to 
Chicago. Six thousand five hundred men were crowded on three poor boats, 
these so unserviceable that two weeks were spent getting to St. Louis, and 
so crowded that the small-pox spread among the prisoners. It was mid- 
winter and the suffering was great Leaving the sick at St. Louis, Col. Clark 
proceeded with the regiment to Chicago, returning again February 5, 1863. 
Nearly all the officers and men were sick. Ihe regiment was totally broken 
down, and the mortality was frightful. So many died and were discharged 
that it was fearfully reduced in numbers. As health improved, it was put 
on duty. About April 1st, it was sent to City Point, Virginia, with prisoners. 

April 20th Col. Clark was sent with his regiment, now numbering 300 for 
duty, to Pilot Knob, Missouri, which was threatened by Marmaduke. Col. 
Clark was put in command of the post and soon after of the sub-district, 
leaving the regiment to the command of Lt.-Col. Dungan, at present 
esteemed state senator, of Chariton. Frequent assignment of Col. Clark to 
similar important duties left the regiment much of the time in command of 
the efficient and brave lieutenant colonel, whose skill and effort in drilling 
his regiment made it one of the most proficient in the service. Both m reg- 
imental and in brigade drill, and in training his officers to their duties, 
Lt.-Col. Dungan distinguished himself as a commander, and brought his 
regiment during the service to a high degree of perfection. At Pilot Knob 
the sanitary condition of the regiment improved greatly. 

June 3d, Col. Clark was ordered to embark the Thirty-fourth with Gen. 
Herron's army to join Grant in the Vicksburg campaign. He had now 400 
fit for duty. The Thirty-fourth took its place June 15th at the extreme left of 
Grant's investing line. Though during the siege some were killed or 
wounded, the men stood the exposure better than most of the regiments, 
holding their numbers and strength. The regiment in Gen. Vandever's 
division (Second) and Gen. Herron's corps (Thirteenth) was designed to re- 
enforce Gen. Banks, but, diverted from that purpose, was with Herron in the 
capture of Yazoo City, July 14th. On the 16th and 17th it marched under 
Herron toward Canton, where a diversion was to be made in favor of Sher- 
man who was engaging Johnston at Jackson. Canton and Jackson both 
having been taken, it returned to Yazoo City and Vicksburg. The march 
had been severe, numbers falling from sunstroke. 

July 25th, the division started for the Department of the Gulf. After three 
weeks stay at Port Hudson which proved alarmingly unhealthful, the divis- 
ion moved to Carrollton, Louisiana, arriving August 26th. The men recu- 
perated rapidly. The corps was twice reviewed by Gen. Banks ami oace by 
Gen. Grant. September 5th, the division, lightly equipped, was ordered to 



THE THIRTY-FOURTH INFANTRY. 553 

Morganza on the Mississippi river, remaining there till October 9th. It was 
during this time that the combat of Sterling Farm took place, where the 
Nineteenth Iowa, with other troops of this division, were captured by the 
Rebels. (See chapter 19.) The Thirty-fourth lost Lieut. Walton and 5 pri- 
vates captured and 1 man mortally wounded. After five weeks absence, the 
command returned to Carrollton, and on October 24th, the division embarked 
for Texas. The island of Brazos de Santiago was reached November 8th. 
From there the troops marched to Brownsville, whence they were shortly 
ordered back to the Gulf. In an expedition under Brig. Gen. Ransom, they 
sailed 110 miles up the coast to Aransas Pass. Joined by another brigade 
under Gen. Washburne they landed on St. Joseph's island, crossed to Mata- 
gorda island, and after a preliminary engagement in which the Thirty-fourth 
took prominent part, captured Fort Esperanza. 

Remaining in this vicinity untd April 20, 1864, they re-embarked for New 
Orleans. Immediately on arriving, they were started to re-enforce Gen. 
Banks on the Red River campaign. Banks's army was joined at Alexandria 
April 27th. He had fallen back thus far on his retreat. After about three 
weeks of skirmishing in this vicinity the retreat was resumed to the Missis- 
sippi river. Col. Clark commanded the brigade which formed the rear guard 
most of the way, and the Thirty-fourth, with the other regiments of the brig- 
ade, was frequently engaged with the enemy. Arrived at Morganza, the 
divisiou was ordered to Baton Rouge, remaining there six weeks as garrison. 

In July, Col. Clark had notice that his regiment was to be transferred to 
the Potomac, but while waiting at Algiers to be transported thither it 
was attached to Maj. Gen. Granger's expedition against the forts at the 
mouth of Mobile Bay. Here the gallant Thirty-fourth played a conspicuous 
role. Col. Clark's official report, has a graphic description of the engage- 
ments. The troops disembarked at Dauphin Island July 28th, and marched 
that night to within two miles of Fort Gaines, immediately commencing the 
siege vigorously. August 5th, Admiral Farragut ran his fleet by the forts, 
and the next morning Fort Gaines surrendered. The Thirty-fourth had 
lost 1 man killed. Immediately operations were begun against Fort Mor- 
gan. The intrenchments were gradually advanced until the guns were 
within 500 yards. The bombardment commenced at daylight of August 23d, 
from the north and the south by the gunboats, and from the east by the land 
batteries. Till daylight of the 24th, the stream of shot and shell was inces- 
sant. Then the Rebels ran up the white flag. At the formal surrender, to 
the Thirty-fourth Iowa was assigned the place of honor. At the designated 
time, 2 p. m., the regiment marched up in front, the band playing " Hail 
Columbia." Line of battle was formed in front of the sally port through 
which the prisoners soon issued. They formed in line parallel with and ten 
paces in front of the regiment. The rebel officers were ordered to the front 
and center and while their men stacked arms they surrendered their swords 
into the hands of a staff officer, detailed for the purpose. During the cere- 
monies a national salute was being fired, and just at this juncture the rebel 
flag was hauled down and the Stars and Stripes unfurled to the breeze. 

About the middle of September, the regiment was ordered to report to 
New Orleans, whence it proceeded immediately to Morganza. It was then 
four weeks on the Atchafalaya, on outpost duty. Lieut. Walton and 1 pri- 
vate_ were severely wounded in a skirmish. Later, it was at the mouth of 
White river, Arkansas, returning December 6th to Morganza. The varied 
experiences of the Thirty-fourth Iowa, since enlistment, had reduced it to 
below one-half the maximum. It was formed into a battalion of five com- 
panies, and by January 1, 1865, there was consolidated with it another bat- 
talion of five companies, formed of the Thirty-eighth Iowa. Col. Clark now 
found himself at the head of as fine a regiment as there was in the United 
States service. It was a large regiment of trained and tried veterans. 

In preparation for the Mobile campaign, it was made a part of the Third 
brigade, Second division, Thirteenth army corps, under Gen. Andrews. The 
command was ordered to Barrancas, Florida. It was a beautiful and health- 



" ' i - I 

..-.-""■ ". - - - 

• -■-_._:_-_ 

" ■ - ' -. 

: nors in a contest in regimental drill, il 
mar Dxragan was 

■ . '. - • : 

s, a position which 

: : -. ■ . _ . 7 : ' 

Z*ongan wrote: "The coon:. 
i.-t : :— - _~f r ; ;. " ; e^fr. wiiez irr - ". - : :." : . i:f i zirrt . : . -" 

2 
grm carriages woold cot through tfc: ; . :.em 

7:::- :; :_t : i . ;::i.-::;-i 1 ■- :_r irzij 'd. - - icd moles woold 
:-;.£ -_:: :;;/. .".- i. ? ~£ " v.-.: •: '. ■■; A — '- :".? rurade wmld be leiafled 
to cord aroy. while the pioneer corr a 

:■:*.- — - :[::--_.:.:.:::_.::. -7. .--.-•- — - : . Lrojed Only ~ : ■ miles 
.. :_- — t.'t ~ir:--i. c ::_ .-. . - :-'-- ::;i:-. - ■ :. forage and the arm] is 
rT-I":;-ri " :::••_.. '. :.:.:- ■:_••-. - . _-;..:> :' ; : — left byhoxsea ind 

__t ;• . - - ' - in til 

: - " • . _ -. . : - " I - 

.. ... ;-:..- - 1 ; - 7 . 

19th, the regiment moved to . 

: . . _ " - t left for Mobil 

: B -" : 

Clark was in command of the post and aub-distric: 

r± 1" ::.".-. L__r ; _ — Au £ --§: ' .: ' ^ . .l: : ^.t_t-: " ..- ::. .-- 

:-:- '. : :: :::"-■: --rr_:-. 
CoL Clark was brevetted brigadier general for gall:.--: 1: B] 

- :■ " 

-xf Officers of the Thirty-fourth Io\ca Infantry. 

: :-■-. yn - TtAjas& --; 1 - chaplain. 

r W. caDkT" -■--."- r-; - ---_-.-_—. : .-- ---. : .r .17 



^rzrr : : 



WSTTCZ. 5. TV-t-st- 



-:__ : y - -.-: :: --- a. Miy : :-. 



" — v. : -- --. 



THIRTY-FIFTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

— -:__-.-- : 

. . 7 rster G. Hill 

"::-•- ' : -- .:. : n : :z.rj _•' .:.:. :: M-;:: ... : _-._ :.' • - ; -: *. * • 

- z guard 

ader Lt.- 
Rothroek -ainder of ed. 

.- - 7:^77 ".::•". - 7^7 ■ :: .:.:_-:.. -.: "-_;.. _■" .1 - v ••:. ..- 
: .7. -- — :- • 7.: '_ .•„ .-: _ :*. :t- ''., - ~\z. ~--~ : ■''..--■ i j.r.1 ri-r 1 t. • '.'iiro. 
. :mpanies B ar. U) Illinois I 



ihz th:?.7y-f:fih ixfav: 55o 

. an Tllinois regim il They retained to Cairo March Zlth 
nx lompanies at Cairo were ordered up theTeonr- -:-ort 

jth, to re-enfor: 
April 12th, by orders ol jat the regiment set out for the V; 

- ~ aign, at Dackp ; r ; . - . ana. reporting to Brig. Gen. J. M. Tattle, 

coalman i:„_ I _ird division of the Fifteenth army corps, under Gen. 

3 . .nan. It was assigned to the Inird brigade of his division. The regi- 
ment participated in the battle of Jackson. May 14th, having 1 man killed 
and 1 severely wounded. It crossed Big Black river on the 13th and ar. 

evening in the rear of Vicksburg. Here it engaged in the severest 
-;.---- ::■ -.:._ 

June 23d, the regiment was ordered oat in the Army of Observation near 

■ _ 
had lost 2 killed and 1 wounded. July 4th, when Vicksourg capitulated, it 
ordered by a circuitous route to Jackson, arriving on the 10th. When 
aeuated by the Rebels, it engaged in destroying railroads in 
the vicinity. A: Jj..-:>:n it had lost 1 officer wounded and some men 
captured. The regiment left July 20th, with about 600 prisoners of war, for 
Chilton, Mississippi. Wnea its division arrived, July 23d, it left to go into 
cam: > miles from Vicksburg. Owing to severe marches 

and duties from May on, in that southern climate, many of the Thirty-fifth 
sickened and died during August and September. In the meantime, Lt.-Col. 
Rothrock and Maj. O'Connor had resigned. Oapi 3. iveeler succeeded 

jai Abraham John became major. 
:ober 15th, the regiment left on a scout under Gen. McPherson beyond 
_.e, returning October 20th. November ith, the regiment left 
. irg : . i M _. - and marched from there to La Grange, Tenne— 
aniving November 21si _ • amand it mov: 

Vicksburg to 1 leridian raid. Arriving too 

to join tt ..- ion, it remained in camp till March 10th, when in 

A. J. Smith's ilnmnii -:artedto join Gen. Banks's Red River expedi- 
CoL Hdl commanded the brigade consisting of bis own regiment and 
ITiirty-third lLk-( ".■: er led the Thirty-fifth I 

rare : mmanded - a At the taking of Fort de Russey the 

regiment 1 candria, Col. Hill's brigade, with a 

battr cdered against J: art Henderson. The brilliant manner in 

rir mission was accomplished is thus narrated: The enemy were 
- : r an attack. The march was through marshes and a A 
pine forest, and many were exhausted from fatigue. It was cold and ra 
ladmess set in. N - ad quickly, the brigade, with the Th 

Iowa in advance, felt theii way to the en.my's Unes. Eight pickets 
were one guidon and an ambulance 

with horses, and sea - first regiment, without the firing of 

a gun. At midnight the main camp of the Rebels was reached. The 
horses, hitche i a of the enemy's battery and caisson, were mounted 

by oar men and a number of the enemy surrounded in a house before our 
ered. Both regiments then charged with fixed bayonets 
through the camp, capturing another section of battery with caissons and 
hors number of mounted Rebels. Moving to another 

point, al sat re prisoners with horses were taken. With this rich 

B, 222 pri- ::~Jery, horses and arms, the brigade returned to 

Alex ...i in . gb commendation for its brilliant exploit. 

Al the battle of Pleasant Hill, CoL Hill's brigade fought valiantly, the 
Thirty-fifth Iowa alone losing I I of! sontol seven 

. .npanies. three being on picket duty in the rear. (For eampaig:. 

e retreat .. Hill's brave regiments 

ha 1 their share of the fighting constantly taking place. May 16th. at Man- 
Bura, Louisiana, the Thirty-fifth Iowa lost 3 wounded, and on the 18th, at 
Bayou le Ghuze, 3 killed! 17 wounded and 1 missing. Car: Bur- 



556 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



meister was severely wounded and Col. Hill had the inexpressible sorrow of 
seeing his own son, Fred. Hill, acting orderly, shot dead by his side. 

After returning to Vicksburg, the regiment was in Gen. Smith's force 
which fought the battle of Point Chicot or old Lake, to clear the river of 
Marmaduke's blockade. Maj. Abraham John commanded and fell mortally 
wounded from his horse. Capt. Wdliam Dill was also severely wounded. 
In a few minutes the regiment lost about 20. It then proceeded to Memphis, 
and with its command was engaged in Gen. Smith's Tupelo campaign. 
With the Twelfth Iowa, it formed a part of the brigade of Col. Woods of 
the Twelfth, and participated in the battle of Tupelo, July 14th. (See 
chapter 29.) _ After returning to Memphis it was again engaged in the 
Oxford expedition. By the last of August, it was again in Memphis. 

Early in September, Gen. Mower's division was ordered to leave Memphis 
for the White river, Arkansas, to clear out threatened rebel blockading. 
Landing at Duvall's Bluff, it marched to Brownsville and then pursued Price 
northward to Missouri — a severe march of 350 miles in 19 days. Moving to 
St. Louis, the command was ordered to join Gen. A. J. Smith in pursuit of 
Price in Missouri. The enemy constantly eluded, and the violent march- 
ing ended about the middle of November. In about a week more Gen. 
Smith's army was on its way to re-enforce Thomas at Nashville. The Third 
brigade consisted of the Twelfth and Thirty-fifth Iowa, with the Seventh 
Minnesota, Thirtv-third Missouri and a Missouri battery, and was com- 
manded by Col. Hill of the Thirty-fifth Iowa. 

At the battle of Nashville, December 15th and 16th, this brigade fought 
with conspicuous gallantry and great loss. (See chapter 28.) In the course 
of this brilliant engagement, in assaulting a fort which they captured, the 
brave Col. Hill was shot dead. Col. Marshall of the Seventh Minnesota suc- 
ceeded him. The Thirty-fifth engaged in pursuit of the Rebels, and then 
marched to Clifton. Early in 1865 it moved to Eastport, and on February 
5, 1865, to Vicksburg. 

The regiment was soon transferred to the South, still in Gen. Smith's army, 
to enter upon the Mobile campaign. Lt.-Col. Keeler commanded. It was 
still in Marshall's brigade and was in McArthur's division of the Sixteenth 
army corps. (For campaign, see chapter 32.) At Spanish Fort it did its 
full share of duty in the siege. When this closing act of the war was con- 
cluded and Mobile occupied by the union troops, the regiment moved first to 
Montgomery and then to Selma. July 21st, it received the order to start for 
home, and was mustered out of the service August 10, 1865, at Davenport, 
thus closing its faithful and gallant career. Col. Hill was brevetted briga- 
dier general, U. S. V. 



Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Sylvester G. Hill. 


Henry O'Connor. 
Wm. B. Keeler. 
Abraham John. 
Wm. Dill. 


Chas. L. Chambers. 
Stephen M. Cobb. 


iFrancis W. Evans. 
Wm. Bagley. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANT. 


ASST. SUBGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 



James H. Kothrock. 
Wm. B. Keeler. 



Frederick L. Dayton. 



Stephen M. Cobb. 
Emanuel C. Keigart. 
Chas. Fitch. 
Wm. M. Glenny. 
Saml. E. Jones. 
Emanuel J. B. Statler. 
Newcomb S. Smith. 



Heiskell Lofland. 
Robert B. Baird. 



THE THIRTY-SIXTH INFANTRY. 557 



THIRTY-SIXTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

The Thirty-sixth Iowa infantry enlisted in the month of August, 1862. 
Companies B, D, H and E were enlisted in Wapello county, Companies C, 
F, G and I in Appanoose county, and Companies A and K in Monroe 
county. It rendezvoused at Keokuk, Iowa, in September following, and 
was regularly mustered into the United States service October 4, 1862. The 
colonel, Chas. W. Kittredge, had formerly been captain of Company F, 
Seventh Iowa infantry. He was severely wounded at the battle of Belmont, 
which rendered him unfit for service for many months, and upon the organi- 
zation of the Thirty-sixth he was made its colonel. He was the only member 
of the field and staff who had seen previous military service. The regi- 
ment left Keokuk about the 10th of November, going down the river on two 
steamers, making its first landing at Columbus, in the night, to assist in 
repelling an expected attack of the enemy. The regiment remained here 
only 24 hours, all the while under arms. It then proceeded to St. Louis and 
was in Benton Barracks until December 19, 1862. Then it descended the river, 
landing at Memphis December 22d, and remaining until the 30th, when 
it proceeded to Helena, Arkansas, arriving there on the last day of the 
year 1862. It remained there until the latter part of the following Febru- 
ary, when it embarked on steamers in the Yazoo Pass expedition, returning 
to Helena April 8th, the expedition comprising just 40 days and nights in 
the wilderness. (For account of this expedition, see chapter 17.,) 

The regiment remained here, making occasional forays into the country, 
until August 11, 1863, when it made part of Gen. Steele's army in his march 
on Little Rock, Arkansas. Helena was the chief burial place of the Thirty- 
sixth, Iowa. Its stay in that charnel house of death and the Yazoo Pass 
expedition, so spread disease among the men that few escaped sickness, and 
the mortality was large. The health of the regiment improved at once when 
it set out for Little Rock. This is the experience of all troops on the march. 
Little Rock was captured on the 10th of September and the regiment entered 
the city two days after, encamping in the outskirts on the north side. March 
27, 1864, it was in the expedition under command of Gen. Steele. Its 
objective point was Camden, at the head of navigation, on the Oucheta 
river. How arduous that expedition was, and how well the regiment con- 
ducted itself in emergencies and in battle, have been fully described in the 
chapter on the Camden campaign. The Thirty-sixth Iowa bore the brunt 
of the battle on this march, at Elkin's Ford, where Lt.-Col. Drake com- 
manded our force. 

It took part also in the battle at Prairie d'Anne. There the advance 
of the army skirmished for twelve miles and finally found the Rebels 
so strongly posted as to require three days to dislodge them. It was there 
that our soldiers learned of the awful disaster to the co-operating column 
under Banks, and that a new and strong enemy would soon be in their 
front. The army entered Camden about April 14th. On the 22d of April 
the regiment was in the brigade detailed to guard 240 wagons back to Pine 
Bluff. The brigade was commanded by Lt.-Col. F. M. Drake, and the regi- 
ment by Maj. A. H. Hamilton. Col. Kittredge had been taken down very 
sick two days before and was unable to accompany the expedition. The 
battle of Mark's Mills (see chapter 24), and the capture of the regiment 
occurred April 25th. _ About 100 of the Thirty-sixth Iowa left behind were 
in the battle of Jenkins' Ferry under command of Lieut. Huston of Com- 
pany I. About 225 of the regiment captured at Mark's Mills were taken to 
Camp Ford prison, 4 miles from Tyler, Texas, where those who did not 
escape in the meantime remained until about the 1st of March, 1865, when 
they were exchanged, rejoining the regiment at St. Charles, on the White 
river, Arkansas, in April. After the return of Gen. Steele to Little Rock 
the regiment was 250 strong. It remained at Little Rock till early in 
March, 1865, when it was removed to St. Charles, on the White river, and 



558 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



from thence in May, to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, where it was mustered 
out August 24, 1865. From thence it went to Davenport, Iowa, where it 
was paid off and disbanded September 8th. The regiment received some 
70 recruits in March, 1864, at Little Rock, and had in it from first to last 
1'205 officers and men. Its fatalities in the battle of Mark's Mills, Arkansas, 
exceeded its casualties in all other actions combined, and Helena was its 
charnel house from disease. 

Many of the regiment attempted escape from the prison at Tyler, but few 
were successful. Among the successful were Lieut W. F. Vermilya, after- 
ward captain of Company C, who reached New Orleans, and Maj. A. H. 
Hamilton, Capt. Allen W. Miller of Company C, and Capt. John Lambert of 
Company K. The three latter made their escape together on the 23d of 
July, 1864, reaching the union lines August 24, at Pine Tree Bluff 
Arkansas. Miller died in about three weeks after, and Lambert on the 6th 
of January following, from the exposure of the trip. Some time after his 
escape from prison, Maj. Hamilton, who, with his captured comrades, had 
undergone nameless sufferings and indignities at the hands of the chivalry, 
was placed in command of the regiment until the return of Col. Kittredge 
in the early winter. It was a compliment, for Hamilton had been among 
the bravest of the brave at the battle of Mark's Mills, where he had led the 
regiment and where he did the most heroic fighting on the field. He was 
appointed lieutenant colonel later, but want of vacancy prevented his being 
mustered. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SUBGEONS. 


CHAPLAIN. 


C. W. Kittredge. 


T. 

A. 


C. Woodward. 
H. Hamilton. 


Moses Cousins. 
S. H. Sawyers. 
C. G. Strong. 


IM. H. Hare. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 




ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. SURGEON. 


QUARTERMASTER. 


F. M. Drake. 


A. 
S. 


H. Hamilton. 
K. Mahon. 


P. A. Smith. 


IS. W. Merrill. 



THIRTY-SEVENTH IOWA INFANTRY. 
The Graybeard Regiment. 

It was a wonderful expression of loyalty and patriotism that Iowa fur- 
nished to the states in the aroing forth of this regiment of men who had 
already sent their sons and grandsons to the war. History furnishes no 
parallel— where the fathers of the soldiers, themselves too old to be received 
as volunteers, buckled on their armor, and asked that the government take 
them into the ranks of the army. They were all above forty-five— some were 
over sixty. In response to this appeal, a special order was issued by the 
Secretary of War, to permit their entering the federal service, and stipulating 
that they should serve in performing only guard and garrison duty. 

The regiment was organized at Camp Strong, Muscatine, and mustered 
into the United States' service, December 15, 1862. Geo. W. Kincaid 
was made colonel, Geo. R. West lieutenant-colonel, and Lyman Allen 
major. Capt. Caleb Lamb of Company E kindly furnishes the writer with 
material for this sketch. The Thirty-seventh Iowa was made up of good 
men from every portion of the state. Sturdy, healthy and able-bodied, the 
regiment made a fine appearance, and from its unusual history attracted 
much attention in St. Louis. It arrived there, January 1, 1863, and was 
quartered in Benton Barracks. January 5th it was ordered to Schofield Bar- 
racks in the city, and placed in charge of two military prisons, except Com- 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. 559 

pany E, Capt. Banks, which was placed on provost duty in the city. In 
April, when the forces of Price and Van Dorn threatened St. Louis, Gen. 
Curtis, who was in command, ordered six companies of the Thirty-seventh 
Iowa to the arsenal, where they remained a week on duty, until the rebel 
forces had been turned in another direction. About this time, Capt. Lamb, 
Company I, and Capt. Crane, Company K, were detailed to serve on court 
martial, remaining: on that duty till August 13th. 

May 1st, the regiment was ordered to guard bridges on the Pacific railroad 
west of St. Louis, with headquarters at Franklin. It guarded the road from 
St. Louis to Jefferson City, and remained on this duty till July 29th. The 
regiment was then ordered by Gen. Schofield to Alton, 111., where it relieved 
the Seventy-seventh Ohio, in charge of the military prison at that place. 
It remained here on duty till January 17th, 1S64, when it was ordered on 
similar duty to Rock Island, 111., where, on the island, about 10,0G0 
rebel prisoners were kept. 

June 5th, the regiment was ordered to Memphis, Tennessee, and placed 
on picket and guard duty. The Thirty-seventh Iowa furnished the guard 
every other day for the provision train from Memphis east to La Grange, 
Tennessee, and Holly Springs, Mississippi. While engaged on this duty, the 
train was fired into by guerrillas in ambush. Two men of the regiment 
were killed and two slightly wounded. The time speut at Memphis was a 
trying one to the regiment. 

The tents furnished were such as are known as "dog tents," giving very 
insufficient protection, and as it rained frequently, the men's bedding and 
clothing were much of the time damp. This occasioned much sickness. 

August 27, 1864, the regiment was ordered to Indianapolis, Indiana, arriv- 
ing August 31st. From here five companies under Col. Kincaid were sent 
to Cincinnati to guard prisons. The remaining five companies guarded for 
a time the 9,000 rebel prisoners at Camp Morton, when three companies 
under Lt.-Col. West were sent to Columbus, and the remaining two under 
Maj. Allen to Gallipolis. About the middle of May, 1865, the regiment was 
reunited at Cincinnati. Some of the officers of the Thirty-seventh Iowa, sta- 
tioned at Cincinnati, had been detailed on special duty. Lieut. Stephen B. 
Shelladay who had been a colonel of volunteers in the Black Hawk war, and 
United States marshal for Iowa under President Taylor, was placed by Gen. 
Willich in charge of a military office. In recognition of his efficient service 
the general presented him with an elegant gold- headed cane. 

During the stay of the three companies at Columbus, where from 10,000 to 
16,000 rebel prisoners were guarded at Camp Chase, Company I, Capt. 
Lamb, was detached January 7, 1865, to perform guard and provost duty in 
the city. Capt. Lamb with the two lieutenants, Havens and Belknap, were 
detailed on the special service of conducting recruits from the draft rendez- 
vous at Columbus to the regiments in the field. They continued in this ser- 
vice until they rejoined their regiment in May, at Cincinnati. 

Gen. Willich, the commanding officer, expressing to Adjt. Gen. Thomas 
the highest commendation of the loyal and faithful service of the Thirty- 
seventh Iowa, suggested that with the fullest acknowledgment of its grand 
example, it be mustered out of the United States service. His suggestion 
was complied with, and on May 24, 1865, the regiment was mustered out at 
Davenport, the first of those enlisted for three years. In Gen. Willich's 
letter to Gen. Thomas, he states that many of these men were over sixty, 
and that they had sent thirteen hundred sons and grandsons to the war. 
He says: 

"They have received the commendations of their former post command- 
ers. A t this post they have performed very heavy duties, to perforin which 
would have been difficult for even an equal number of young men. The 
high patriotism displayed by these men in devoting a few years of their old 
age to their country's service is unparalleled in history, and commands the 
respect of every true Republican. I, therefore, most respectfully recommend 
that the Thirty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry may be mustered out of the 



560 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



service immediately, with the honors and acknowledgments of their ser- 
vices due to the noble spirit with which they gave so glorious an example to 
the youths of their country." 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-seventh Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. MAJOR. SURGEON. CHAPLAIN. 


George W. Kincaid. |Lyman Allen. |John W. Finley. |Jas. H. White. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 


ADJUTANT. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTER. 


George K. West. 


David H. Goodno. 


Geo. S. Dewitt. 
Saml. C. Haynes. 
Edward Dorn. 
Joseph Orr. 


Prentice Ransom. 



THIRTY-EIGHTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

The story of this regiment is short and melancholy. As an organization 
it never saw a battle, and yet no Iowa regiment in the service lost so many 
soldiers in so short a time. Out of a full strength of 910, not less than 311 
were dead within a year and a half, and another 110 had been discharged 
as broken down too much to serve. This was well on to every other man. 
and without a battle. Death in war times comes in more forms than one, aud 
disease is usually more fatal than the bullet; the weary march destroys more 
men than the cannon. It is doubtful if any command in all the United States 
service suffered as this command did. It died at its post fighting the deadly 
malaria of a southern swamp. No regiment entered the service with higher 
hopes than did the Thirty-eighth Iowa, at Dubuque, on November 4, 1862. 
The city where it rendezvoused was beautiful, the scene was fair, and Post 
Quartermaster Graves surrounded the men with comforts and conveniences, 
such as soldiers seldom knew. His Camp Franklin was a model place for 
soldiers to prepare for war. With a cheer the regiment bade farewell to 
Camp Franklin and Iowa, on December 15, 1862, as it started for the South, 
as it hoped, for war. In two days it was at Benton Barracks near St. Louis. 
On the 28th of December, the regiment, on board the steamer Platte Valley, 
started down the Mississippi river for Columbus, Ky., and in three days was 
being led by Col. Moore, of Missouri, against the supposed enemy at Union 
City. January 1st the command was ordered back to Columbus, and down 
the river to New Madrid. Col. Scott of the Thirty-second, under orders, had 
recently evacuated this post, spiked the cannon, and burned the barracks. 
The regiment now had nothing to do but rebuild the barracks, unspike the 
cannon and guard Fort Thompson, at the post, for nearly six months. The 
duties here were neither arduous nor dangerous. In June the command went 
by steamer Daniel Taylor to Young's Point, near Vicksburg, and by the 15th 
of June, 1863, had crossed over the Mississippi and was under the guns of 
Vicksburg, forming a part of Gen. Grant's extreme left line The regiment 
was placed in the First brigade, Second division of the Thirteenth array 
corps. Now commenced a hard, soldier life, by clay and by night, digging 
trenches, rifle pits and advances — and doing a guard and picket duty that 
was incessant. The location where this particular regiment lay was 
extremely unhealthy. It was on the edge of a dismal cypress swamp, whose 
miasmatic vapors poisoned the blood of the whole command, sending to 
their graves, later, hundreds of the noble men who had gone there willing to 
sacrifice life and limb in assaulting the works of a foeman, less to be 
dreaded, as it proved, than the sickly vapors of the swamp. In fact the guns 
of the rebel forts killed but a single man of the Thirty-eighth during the 
siege. The 4th of July came, that victory Fourth, and Vicksburg surrendered. 
Then the regiment started for Port Hudson at once, but hearing of its fall, 



THE THIRTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY. 561 

went with Gen. Herrcm to the capture of Yazoo City. Shortly it was back at 
Vicksburg, and then for a few days in Yazoo City again, bringing in cotton, 
mules and negroes. The 27th of July, 1863, found the regiment at Port 
Hudson, La., and here commenced the awful and fatal fevers inherited by 
the men at that cypress swamp by Vicksburg. The whole command was 
sick, very sick, and dying. On August 13th, so many men were down with 
fever that the morniug report showed but eight officers and twenty men of 
this big, fine regiment fit for duty. On the 7th of August, Col. D. H. Hughes, 
the regiment's loved commander, was carried to the grave. He was greatly 
lamented both with his regiment and in Iowa, for he was a noble man who 
died as much a hero as if he had been killed by charging a cannon. So, too, 
went to the grave scores of others of that martyr regiment. Every day saw 
its victims, and the firing of the death squad was more frequent than the 
call to meals. Everybody was on the sick-list, and the camp was only a 
hospital. Many officers resigned and came home to escape the death that 
seemed waiting them. The privates could not resign — death only mustered 
them out, but they left the service as heroic to their cause as were their 
more fortunate comrades, falling in the din and the glory of battle. 

By the 15th of August the feeble little command had a change in scene 
by going to Carrollton, Louisiana, where shortly many of the convales- 
cents joined it, and on October 23d, the regiment sailed for New Orleans 
with Gen. Banks in his expedition to Texas. There were 16 transports and 
3 gunboats in the fleet at sea, and in a few days a fierce storm was encount- 
ered, but, fortunately, no lives were lost, though one of the vessels found- 
ered. On November 3d, the command landed at Brazos Santiago, Texas, 
and in three days moved on Brownsville. The place fell without resistance, 
and here the Thirty-eighth regiment remained in camp till July 23, 1864. 
On July 31st, the command sailed from Brazos Santiago on the steamer City 
of Richmond for New Orleans. On August 5th, it was again at Carrollton, 
and on the 7th it was on the steamer Josephine bound for Mobile Bay. It 
reached Fort Gaines on the 9th, and that evening was landed at Mobile 
Point in the rear of Fort Morgan. Until the 23d of August, when Fort 
Morgan surrendered, the regiment remained on picket and fatigue duty. A 
month was spent at Mobile Point, and, on September 8th, it took the steamer 
James Battle for New Orleans. Gen. T. W. Sherman was commanding the 
forces at New Orleans, and he shortly, September 11th, sent the command 
to Donaldson ville, Louisiana. At this point the regiment numbered 25 offi- 
cers and 523 men; half of it was gone, dead or discharged the service. On 
the 12th of December, 1864, an order was issued consolidating what was 
left of this regiment with the Thirty-fourth Iowa, also a regiment greatly 
reduced in numbers by honorable service. The consolidation finally took 
place at Morganza, when, as an organization, the Thirty-eighth Iowa 
ended its career. The new command, now called the Thirty-fourth Iowa, 
and led by Col. George W. Clark, became one of the largest and best regi- 
ments in the Gulf Department. Its history from this date is an honorable 
one, and is related under the Thirty-fourth Iowa. 

During the unfortunate period of the Thirty-eighth Iowa, when fever was 
carrying its soldier victims to the grave, the regiment was blessed in having 
several officers wholly and sincerely devoted to its interests. Col. Hughes, 
until stricken down himself, had been the regiment's best friend in its sor- 
rows. Another of the good Samaritans was its surgeon, Dr. Henry W. 
Hart. Hart had been an able practitioner at home, had seen splendid ser- 
vice with the Ninth infantry, and was besides a m in of noble impulse and 
of good heart. Many a soldier snatched from death at the hands of south- 
ern fevers has blessed Dr. Hart. His labors at Vicksburg and at Port Hud- 
son, where almost everybody was sick, were simply herculean. By day and 
by night he was constantly ministering to his sick comrades. When other 
Burgeons all gave out, he labored on, and was the only doctor of his divis- 
ion able for duty, or who could enter Vicksburg when the city fell. His 

I. W. T.— 36 



562 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



great abilities as an army surgeon and his faithfulness secured him a per- 
manent position later as surgeon of the general hospital at New Orleans. 
They secured him also the recognition and thanks of high officials. It is 
said the records of the army show few examples of more self-denial or pat- 
riotic devotion than was furnished by Dr. Hart, the veteran surgeon and 
philanthropist. His sacrifice and devotion were not single. The story of 
the kind deeds, the self-sacritice, the labors, and the. patriotic hearts of 
scores of army surgeons, hospital stewards, chaplains and nurses will never 
all be known. Their labors, well done, were without reward, save the 
scanty pay. There was no glory in saving a man's life — it was the killing- 
of men that brought renown; and the goodness and the charity among the 
men who cared for the sick and the dying soldiers, the goodness and char- 
ity that never vaunted themselves, had their best and sole rewards in the 
promises made to them who do good deeds, though unseen. No command 
ever realized more than did the Thirty-eighth Iowa the goodness of good 
friends. It saved many of them in their struggle with disease — a struggle 
the most heroic of anything in their history. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEON. CHAPLAINS. 


D. H. Hughes. 


C. Chadwick. IH. W. Hart. 1 John Webb. 

H. F. Beebe. |A. H. Houghton. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. 


ADJUTANTS. 


A8ST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


J. 0. Hudnutt. 


H. W. Pettit. 
0. F. Loshe. 


R. McNutt. 
E. A. Duncan. 
S. E. Robinson. 
J. M. Peebles. 


M. R. Lyons. 
T. R. Crandell. 
H. A. Maydole. 



THIRTY-NINTH IOWA INFANTRY. 

Most of the companies of this regiment rendezvoused at Des Moines. 
Being then ordered to Davenport where they were joined by the remainder, 
the regiment was mustered into the service November 24, 1862. H. J. B. 
Cummings, former captain in the Fourth Iowa, was made colonel, James 
Redfield lieutenant colonel, and Jos. M. Griffiths major. Geo. C. Tichenor 
adjutant, became afterward aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Dodge, serv- 
ing with distinction. The author is indebted to Mr. F. M. Cassiday, adju- 
tant's clerk in the Thirty-ninth Iowa, for interesting information. 

In camp at Davenport, measles broke out, there being 300 cases. There 
were also other camp diseases. Most of the sick were only convalescent 
when the regiment was ordered to the front, and 41 were unable to move. 
December 12th, the regiment started for Cairo to report to Brig. Gen. Tuttle, 
arriving on the 14th. It was soon transferred to a crowded transport, the 
source of suffering and sickness to many of our soldiers, and on the 16th 
sent down the river with orders to debark at Columbus and report to Brig. 
Gen. Davies. The exposure on the steamer was added to by landing at dusk 
in rain and mud and sleeping on the wet ground with only "shelter tents." 
On the 18th the regiment was ordered to report to Brig. Gen. G. M. Dodge 
at Corinth, Mississippi. Upon the arrival of the regiment at Jackson, Ten- 
nessee, it was ordered by Gen. Sullivan to debark, the Rebels under Forrest 
threatening that place. While Sullivan was awaiting an attack, Forrest 
was cutting the railroad in the vicinity. The move on Jackson being dis- 
covered to be a feint, the regiment with two others was sent to repair the 
railroad and drive off the enemy. On the 26th , it arrived at Trenton, suf- 
fering from exposure to rain and lack of sleep. 

Joined now by other troops, the force, led by Col. Dunham of the Fiftieth 
Indiana, followed after Forrest who was at Huntingdon, 30 miles east. This 



THE THIRTY-NINTH INFANTRY. 563 

first march of the Thirty-ninth was entered upon at dark of the 27th, each 
man with five days' rations and a hundred rounds of ammunition. There 
was neither team nor ambulance. It was a hard experience for young sol- 
diers fresh from Iowa, many just out of hospital, and all worn out by short 
rations and night duty. The force rested at daylight, resuming march at 8 
in the morning. Again they marched till night. The next morning over a 
hundred men, too worn out and foot-sore to proceed, were left by the way. 
Attempting to make their way back, they were surrounded at Shady Grove 
by a regiment of Forrest's cavalry, and 101 made prisoners. It was October of 
1863 before they were released from captivity and rejoined their regiment. 

Col. Dunham's force arrived that night at Huntingdon. The next day 
the Second brigade, which included the Thirty-ninth Iowa, and numbered 
1545 men, moved out alone toward Lexington. It came in contact with 
Forrest's command numbering from 6,000 to 7,000, and there resulted the 
battle of Parker's Cross Roads. (See chapter 16.) It was the last day of 
1862, and the regiment, by its bravery in battle, had proved itself worthy of 
the trust of its loyal state and its brave comrades in the field. 

January 1, 1863, the regiment set out for Jackson, and on the 6th for Cor- 
inth. Gen. Dodge assigned it to the Thiid brigade, Col. M. M. Bane, 
Second division, Gen. G. M. Dodge, Sixteenth army corps, Maj.-Gen. Hurl- 
but. The regiment remained at Corinth on garrison duty till November 
2, I860. There were several marches of two or three days at a time to 
guard trains, and one to La Grange, Tennessee, to ward off a threatened 
attack on the railroad. The camp was regularly laid out with excellent log 
barracks for officers and men — the best quarters in the division. 

April loth, Gen. Dodge's division moved out to cover the raid of Col. 
Streight into Georgia. At Bear Creek the enemy disputed the passage, but 
a pontoon was thrown over and they moved to Tuscumbia, skirmishing con- 
stantly until arriving at Town Creek, Alabama. The enemy under Roddy 
were now re-enforced by Forrest and contested their crossing, but after artil- 
lery duels, three bridges were built under fire and the enemy retired. Col. 
Streight having started in a southwesterly direction around the Rebels, the 
night before, the object of the expedition was accomplished, and the division 
returned. May 6th, Company H, while guarding a corral, was surrounded 
by 800 rebel cavalry and mostly taken prisoners. 

November 2, 1863, Gen. Dodge's entire division left Corinth for Pulaski, 
Tennessee. It reached there in ten days, there having been four days delay 
at Iuka. At Pulaski, division headquarters were established, the force 
beinsr distributed at various points on the railroad. The Thirty-ninth Iowa 
was placed at Reynolds Station, seven mile3 north. Three companies were 
posted at two gristmills, grinding flour and meal for the command, and two 
companies as guard at railroad bridges. The remaining five remained at 
Reynolds Station. January 21, 1864, regimental headquarters were moved 
to Culleoka, twenty miles farther north, with six companies. Two of the 
companies at the mills were placed at railroad bridges, thus giving the regi- 
ment twenty-five miles of railroad to hold and maintain quiet. January 
26th, another raid on the railroad being feared, strong stockades were 
ordered to be thrown up. The citizens of the town and vicinity, white and 
black, were ordered to assist, to the number of 150. A deep ditch was dug 
around the stockade, with embankments thrown up to the port-holes. Two 
cannon were mounted and rifle-pits made. 

March 12th, the regiment, with its brigade, took up line of march for 
Athens, Alabama, and April 30th moved for Chattanooga. Here with its 
division it set out for Sherman'3 Atlanta campaign. In Dodge's command 
it was the first through Snake Creek Gap. May 9th, with five companies of 
Ninth Illinois mounted infantry,it engaged in a skirmish with rebel cavalry. 
May 16th, it also led the army in crossing the Oostenaula at Lay's Ferry, 
where it had a severe engagement with the enemy, suffering considerable loss 
in killed and wounded. This movement resulted in the enemy's evacuating 
Resaca. May 19th, it reached Kingston, Georgia. May 22d, it marched 



564 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



to Rome where it remained until August 15th. It then went in an expe- 
dition after the rebel cavalry under Wheeler, moving 1,200 miles by rail ami 
march and returning to Rome about September 16th. 

October 4th, it was ordered to Allatoona, arriving at one on the morning of 
the 5th. That clay in the battle of Allatoona under Corse, by its heroism 
and by its sacrifices it made its name glorious in history. (See chapter 
28.) It lost three-filths of its number, among them its heroic leader, Lt.-Col. 
Redfield. October 9th, the regiment returned to Rome, Georgia. October 
13th, it crossed to the south side of the Etowah river, skirmishing with rebel 
cavalry and driving them from the neighborhood. November 10th, it moved 
to Atlanta. 

November 16th, in Corse's division, the regiment joined in the brilliant 
march to the sea. It engaged in the skirmishing with the enemy on Hear- 
ing Savannah, and entered that city with the army. Col. Cummings being 
honorably mustered out of the service on December 22, 1864, Lt.-Col. Grif- 
fiths succeeded in command. The regiment joined in the march of Sher- 
man's army northward through the Carolinas, its labors, its adventures and 
its fighting. The march concluded at Washington, it participated, May 24, 
in the grand review. It remained there in camp till June 5th, when it 
was mustered out of the service, and went home to Iowa, its loyal mission 
in the war fulfilled. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEON. 


CHAPLAINS. 


H. J. B. Cummings. 
Joseph M. Griffiths. 
James Redfield. 


Joseph "a. Griffiths. 
Geo. N. Elliott. 
Isaao D. Marsh. 


Peter N. Woods. 


Thos. J. Taylor. 
Peter T. Russell. 
Newton P. Wright. 
Howison C. Crawford. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


ADJUTANTS. 


ASST. 8UEGE0NS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


James Redfield. 
Joseph M. Griffiths. 
Geo. N. Elliott. 


Geo. 0. Tichenor. 
John R. Joy. 


Wm. L. Leonard. 
Ephraim P. Davis. 
Wm. A Dinwiddie 


Frederick Mott. 
John M. Andrews. 



FORTIETH IOWA INFANTRY. 

The last of the three years regiments to fill its ranks and enter the field 
was the Fortieth. The next one in order only reached the size of a battal- 
ion, while subsequent ones failed to organize. The Hundred Days regi- 
ments began then with the Forty-fourth, ending with the Forty-eighth. 
The Fortieth Iovva was mustered into the service at Iowa City, November 
15. H62, with John A. Garrett as colonel, Samuel F. Cooper as lieutenant 
colonel, and Sherman G. Smith as mijor. Col. Garrett had served in the 
Fourth Indiana infantry in the Mexican war. He entered the civil war as a 
captain of the Tenth Iowa infantry, serving with such distinction as to be 
promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy of the Twenty-second, and before join- 
ing that regiment to the colonelcy of the Fortieth. 

December 17th the regiment was ordered to Columbus, Kentucky, which 
was threatened by an attack from Forrest. The winter passed monoto- 
nously, and many sickened and died from the exposure incident to camp life 
— many, too, were susceptible to diseases from having just recovered from the 
measles, which had also attacked this regiment. Orders to proceed to Pa- 
ducah on March 3, 1863, were received with joy. The three months stay at 
Paducah benefited the troops greatly both in spirits and health. 

May 31st, the regiment was ordered to join in the Vicksburg campaign. 
It was stationed on the Yazoo river in the vicinity of Haines' and Snyder's 
Bluffs, as a part of the Army of Observation, to prevent Johnston's re-en. 



THE FORTIETH INFANTRY. 565 

forcing Pemberton in Vicksburg. It was here in the brigade of Col. Mont- 
gomery, of the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, and in Gen. Kimball's provisional 
division. The miasma of this region and the unhealthful water reduced 
greatly the strength of the regiment. Col. Garrett being detailed on court 
martial duty. Lt.-Col. Cooper was here much of the time in command. 

July 23d, the regiment was embarked for Helena, another unhealthful 
region. In a few days it marched with Gen. Steele's army on Little Rock. 
This severe march in midsummer told fearfully on the regiment, already 
debilitated by the poisons of the Yazoo. Its strength at this time was 750, 
but at one point in the march only 219 could report for duty. Midway on 
the x - oute, Gen. Steele was forced to send over a thousand men to hospitals. 
Col. Garrett was at this time ill, and Lt.-Col. Cooper, though himself ill 
with fever and hardly able to sit in the saddle, led the regiment. The 
danger passed, he fell into a serious fever. 

Crossing the Arkansas river, the Fortieth Iowa led the army. It was 
expected that it would be met by a hot fire of the enemy from the timber 
on the opposite side. The regiment, after supporting the batteries while 
the pontoon bridge was built, crossed in fine style, and in perfect order. To 
the surprise of our force the enemy had withdrawn. Little Rock was now 
soon occupied by Gen. Steele. During the winter there was an expedition 
to Benton, 25 miles distant, in which the Fortieth participated. Little 
else transpired out of the usual routine of guard and dnU duty, till the 
opening of the Camden campaign, in the spring, under Gen. Steele. 

March 23, 1864, the army marched out of Little Rock on this ill-fated 
expedition, designed to aid Gen. Banks in the unfortunate Red River cam- 
paign. The Fortieth formed a part of the Third brigade, commanded by Col. 
Fngelmann of the Forty-third Illinois, and was in the Third division. April 
3d, at Okalona, the regiment was engaged with the enemy. It was drawn 
up into line, and Company B, under Capt. Frank T. Campbell, was deployed 
as skirmishers in the woods to the right. The enemy were met in the brush 
and behind logs and driven back. About noon, the enemy making a strong 
effort to advance, Capt. Campbell was compelled to fall back a little toward 
the foot of the hill in a rather unfavorable position. The enemy's fire was 
heavy and Private Samuel S. Roberts was severely wounded. Capt. Camp- 
bell strengthened his line from his reserve and formed a new reserve from 
Company I on picket duty. He then drove the enemy again. At 2 p. m., 
the enemy retired. Companies A, F, D and I were on picket and were more 
or less in the engagement. Sergt. David A. Tanner of Company C was 
wounded that night. At Prairie d'Anne, the Fortieth was also engaged. 
Maj. Smith led the skirmishers — an excellent officer and good man. (For 
campaign, see chapter 24 ) Seven of the regiment were wounded. Thusfar 
on the route 3 of the regiment had been captured or killed in forage trains. 
Camden was reached April 15th. 

During the two weeks halt of the army, difficulties accumulated thickly. 
Then Gen. Steele began the retrext, interrupted April 30th by the sanguinary 
battle of Jenkins' Ferry. Col. Engelmann's brigade formed the rear of the 
retreat, and was engaged at intervals with tne enemy on the 29th. During 
the battle, the Fortietn did not fight in a body. Two companies were under 
Capt. Campbell, four under Maj. Smith and four under Col. Garrett. But 
all fought bravely and well. The four last were in a position to lose more 
men in proportion t ) their number than any other regiment engaged. Out 
of less than a hundred men, 45 were lost. This means every other man. 
After the battle our famished and exhausted troops resumed the miserable 
retreat through mud and water. The night before reaching Little Rock, it 
was a welcome supply train that met them, and crackers were hastily thrown 
them from the wagons. Little Rock was in truth a haven of rest. Adjt. L. 
A. Duncan had been detailed as aide to Brig. Gen. S. A. Rice, and was with 
him in all his engagements, performing most efficient duties. In one battle 
his horse was killed under him. Col. Garrett speaks of the fine services of 
Lt.-Col. Cooper, who, as before stated, had much of the time led the regiment. 



566 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



After a raid of the Rebels under Shelby, Engelmann's brigade was moved 
out, August 24th, to Brownsville Station, to re-open the road and repel future 
attacks. On the 27th, the Fortieth Iowa, guarding a supply train, went to 
Austin. Four companies under Capt. Ridlen proceeded to Searcy, Browns- 
ville Station being reached by all on their return September 2d. September 
4th, the brigade returned to Little Rock. November 29th, 30 men of the 
Fortieth, under Lieut. Fry, on the steamer Alamo, on the Arkansas river, 
were attacked and followed along the river near Dardanelle by rebel cavalry. 
A sharp fight of an hour and a half ensued. Our men fired from behind 
sacks of oats which received the balls of the enemy. Two Rebels were 
killed and 1 wounded. In camp, the duties of the regiment were heavy. In 
January, 1S65, the Fortieth was sent up the river to Dardanelle to raise a 
blockade of the Rebels. This accomplished, it returned to Little Rock. Lt.- 
Col. Cooper commanded. At this time Col. Garrett was in command of a 
brigade, and Adjt. Duncan was serving at headquarters as acting assistant 
adjutant general. Gen. Bussey, in command of the district at Fort Smith 
wanted a "first-rate regiment," and the Fortieth Iowa was sent him in 
February. Lt.-Col. Cooper was here detailed for duty at Gen. Reynolds's 
headquarters, these duties preventing his serving again with the regiment. 
Adjt. Duncan was engaged at Gen. Bussey's headquarters. The command 
thus devolved on Capt. E. W. Ridlen. 

Col. Garrett was now assigned to command of the District of South Kan- 
sas, with headquarters at Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation. He retained this 
command till the close of the war. His regiment remained with him till 
mustered out at Fort Gibson, August 2d. It was a journey of 1,500 miles to 
Iowa, which home was hailed with joy on August 10th, 1865. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Fortieth Iowa Infantry. 



COLONEL. MAJORS. SURGEONS, CHAPLAINS. 


John A. Garrett. ISherman G. Smith. 1 David W. Robinson. 1 Samuel Hest wood. 

ILawson A. Duncan. INorman R. Cornell. ISaml. F. C. Garrison. 


LIEUT. COLONEL. ADJUTANT. ASST. SURGEONS. QUARTERMASTERS. 


Saiul. F. Cooper. 


Lawson A. Duncan. 


Azariah S. Elwood. [Admiral B. Miller. 
Hamilton J. Scoles. Jas. R. Brodrick. 
James W. Morgan. 
E. H. Harris. 



FORTY-FIRST IOWA INFANTRY. 

The organization of this regiment being never fully completed, it was 
designated as the Forty-first battalion of Iowa Infantry. This battalion 
was formed by Companies A, B and C of the Fourteenth Iowa, now form- 
ally detached from that regiment, together with others already enlisted for 
the Forty-first regiment. Before the complete organization of the Four- 
teenth, these first three companies had been detached by order of Gen. 
Fremont, and sent to Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, on special duty. 
They marched by way of Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Sioux City, reach- 
ing Fort Randall, December 5, 1861. The distance was 550 miles. This post 
was at that time in the Department of Kansas, though later changed to the 
Department of the Northwest, District of Iowa. Here the three companies 
performed the various duties of protecting, scouting, garrisoning, etc., being 
nominally a part of the Fourteenth infantry. 

September 18, 1862, they were officially separated from the Fourteenth 
regiment, and designated as the Forty-first battalion of iowa infantry. John 
Pattee, captain of Company A, was made major. The battalion continued 
in the performance of tlie same duties as heretofore. There were frequent 



THE FORTY-FIRST INFANTRY. 567 

and rapid marches to protect settlers, and various scouting expeditions, such 
as pertain to a western outpost. 

In April of 1868, by order of the governor of Iowa, approved by the War 
Department, the Forty-first battalion Iowa infantry was transferred as Com- 
panies K, L and M, to the Seventh Iowa cavalry, then forming. From this 
date, its history is embraced in that of its regiment. 

THE UNION BRIGADE. 

This organization was formed of the remnants of some of our captured 
regiments at Shiloh — the Eighth, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa and the 
Fifty-eighth Illinois. It consisted mainly of convalescents, of those who 
had been detailed on special duty elsewhere at the time the battle of Shiloh 
opened, and of a very few who had escaped from the field on the first day. 
Though keeping up the various regimental divisions in itself, it appeared 
as a regiment in the field. Capt. R. W. Healy of the Fifty-eighth Illinois 
was made acting colonel, Capt. J. G. Fowler of the Twelfth Iowa acting 
lieutenant colonel, and Capt. G. W. Kittell of the Fifty-eighth Illinois 
acting major. 

May 17th, Lt.-Col. J. C. Parrott of the Seventh Iowa was placed in com- 
mand of the Union Brigade. In Gen. Halleck's march on Corinth, and in 
the siege following, the brigade was in the advance of our army, and when 
Corinth was evacuated, May 30th, it was engaged in the pursuit to Boone- 
ville, Mississippi. It returned to Corinth June 13th. On the 29th, Lt.-Col. 
Coulter, of the Twelfth Iowa, having returned from sick leave, took com- 
mand of the Union Brigade. He reports its number to have been 478 in the 
aggregate. Of these, 167 were of the Fiftv-eighth Illinois, 179 of the Eighth 
Iowa, 75 of the Twelfth Iowa, and 50 of the Fourteenth Iowa — these beside 
the 7 field and staff officers. By improved health, the number of the brig- 
ade raoidly increased, till on October 1st, at Danville, Mississippi, whither 
it had been ordered August 15th, it numbered 631, exclusive of Company A, 
Fifty-eighth Illinois, which was on detached service. 

In the battle of Corinth, October 3d and 4th, the Union Brigade fought gal- 
lantly, and lost, in proportion to its numbers, as severely as any regiment 
on the field. Lt.-Col. Coulter was among the wounded, and Adjt. D. B. 
Henderson of the Twelfth Iowa lost a leg in the battle. The brigade 
joined in the pursuit as far as Ripley, Mississippi, and then returned to 
Corinth. 

December 18, 1862, orders came from the War Department disbanding 
the Union Brigade and ordering the men of the Eighth, Twelfth and Four- 
teenth Iowa regiments to proceed to Davenport and organize anew in their 
respective regiments, the imprisoned members having been paroled October 
18th, and exchanged November 10th. On its way home, in charge of Lt.- 
Col. Coulter, it was detained at Jackson, Tennessee, the Rebels under For- 
rest threatening that post. The brigade remained four days and was then 
ordered to open the road to Columbus, Kentucky, which duty delayed it 
until January 4. It reached Davenport January 7, 1863. From this time the 
histoiy of these troops is again that of the Eighth, Twelfth and Fourteenth 
Iowa Infantry. 

THE HUNDRED DAYS MEN. 

The Forty-fourth, Forty -fifth. Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Regiments, 
and the Forty-eighth Battalion of Iowa infantry. 

Gov. Stone of Iowa was an earnest advocate, with President Lincoln, 
together with others of the war governors, of the enlistment of men for a 
hundred days, to perform guard and garrison duty and thus enable all the 
tried veterans of the war to engage under the banners of Grant and Sher- 
man in the field. It proved a wise expedient. In Iowa, four regiments 
and a battalion responded to the call. They were mustered into the service 
mostly in June of 1864. 



568 



IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 



These regiments performed willing 1 and loyal duty. The Forty-fourth, 
Forty-filth and Forty-sixth Iowa were held in Tennessee, garrisoning posts 
and guarding railway. The Forty-seventh Iowa was sent to Helena, Ark., 
where it suffered much from the malaria of that unhealthful locality. The 
Forty-eighth battalion of Iowa infantry guarded prisoners on Rock Island, 
in the Mississippi river. Col. Henderson of the Forty-sixth reports an 
engagement between some of his men and the enemy at Colliersville, Tenn., 
about the middle of August. Capt. Wolf and 16 men were sent to 
rescue, if possible, 2 men of the Sixth Illinois cavalry, captured by the 
enemy. In the attempt, Capt. Wolf and 3 of his men were wounded — the 
captain and one man severely so. 

At the end of the time for which they had enlisted, these four regiments 
and the battalion were honorably mustered out of the service, having faith- 
fully and with credit accomplished their mission. The President acknowl- 
edged the services of the Hundred Days men in the army of the Union by a 
special order, tendering them the thanks of the nation through the gover- 
nors of their respective states. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Hundred Days Regiments. 



COLONELS. 



SURGEONS. 



CHAPLAINS. 



45th— 
46th— 
47th— 

48th— 



Stephen H. Hender- 
son. 
Alvah H. Bereman. 
David B. Henderson. 
James P. Sanford. 



Josiah Hopkins. 

James B. Hope. 
Geo. L. Torbert. 
George J. North. 



James Irwin. 

Wm. W. Estabrook. 
Joseph R. Duncan. 
James D. Wright. 

John A. Blanchard. 



Martin Bowman. 

Anson Skinner. 
John Todd. 
Enoch Hoffman. 
James P. Roch. 



LIEUT. COLONELS. 



ADJUTANTS. 



ASST. SURGEONS. 



QUARTERMASTERS. 



44th- 
45th- 

46th- 



Henry Egbert. 
Samuel A. Moore. 



Lorenzo D. Durbin. 
47th— John Williams. 
48th— lOliver H. P. Scott. 



Evert F. Richman. 

Alvanus W. Shel- 
don. 

John L. Harvey. 

Geo. W. Devin. 

Wm. T. Hayes. 



John H. Russell. 
Orrin B. Thompson. 
Samuel H. Stuts- 
man. 
John Hurley. 
Wm. H. Rosser. 
John D. McOleary. 
Samuel B. Cherry. 
John H. Fry. 
ChalesL. Mundt. 



Alonzo J. Van Duzee. 
John P. Dawson. 

Dilazon D. Holdridge 

Sanford Harned. 
Emanuel Laffer. 
Lewis Todhunter. 



IOWA COLORED REGIMENT. 

Iowa also had a regiment of colored soldiers in the service, though many 
of its members were enlisted from Missouri. It was thought impossible to 
rendezvous a regiment of ex-slaves in Missouri, and so Gov. Kirk wood per- 
mitted and directed the enlistments at Keokuk in loyal Iowa. It was a 
regiment 900 strong, and almost every single arms bearing black man in the 
state shouldered his musket and joined the regiment. The command was 
known ;it first as the First Iowa Colored regiment, but later it was desig- 
nated as the Sixtieth United States regiment of Afiican descent. It saw 
much garrison service at St. Louis, Helena and elsewhere, though but little 
fighting. Its adjutant was killed in a battle back of Helena, July 26th, 1864. 

The men of that regiment were all true patriots and they did the duties 
entrusted to them bravely and well. They realized the contrast between 
groveling in southern slavery and wearing the blue uniform of a northern 
soldier, and they thanked God that they, too. might help preserve the honor 
of the Republic. 

The colonel of this regiment was John C. Hudson of St. Louis, the lieuten- 
ant colonels were Milton F. Collins of Keokuk and Gardiner A. A. Deane 
of Farmington, and the major was John L. Murphy. 



THE FIRST CAVALRY. 569 



FIRST IOWA CAVALRY. 

Tins famous regiment was organized June 5, 1861, and ordered into quar- 
ters at Benton Barracks near St. Louis about the middle of October in the 
same year. Pitz Henry Warren of Burlington was elected colonel, Charles 
E. Moss lieutenant colonel, and Edwin W. Chamberlain and James 0. 
Gower majors. The regiment was composed of twelve companies, aggre- 
gating 1,095 men, who, by additional enlistments, soon numbered 1,245. 
Iowa's first cavalry became one of the best and most active commands in 
the United States service, and its history cannot be more succinctly told than 
by condensing from the words of Charles H. Lothrop, its able and accom- 
plished surgeon. About the middle of October, writes Surgeon Lothrop, 
the various companies of the regiment were on their way to join Gen. Fre- 
mont's forces preparing for a march on Springfield, Missouri. By Novem- 
ber 1st, the regiment was with Fremont's command at Otterville. When 
the army reached Springfield, Gen. Fremont was removed from the com- 
mand, and Gen. Hunter put in his place. This produced great dissatisfac- 
tion. Gen. Fremont was the idol of the Western troops. When Hunter 
assumed command, the army was disbanded and the first Iowa cavalry 
returned to the Missouri river, the southern part of the state being aban- 
doned to Price and his followers for several months. The middle and west- 
ern portion of Missouri was the highway to the so-called Southern Confed- 
eracy for recruits, sympathizers and bushwhackers. During the entire winter 
of 1861-62, eight companies were engaged in patrolling this grand highway 
to rebeldom. Their camps had but temporary existence at Jefferson City, 
Otterville, Fayette and other places. Ever on the alert, their engagements 
and skirmishes were numerous. Political broils were quieted, uprisings 
of the disloyal people were prevented, and guerrillas made exceedingly 
scarce in the vicinity of our troopers. It is generally conceded that no body 
of cavalry ever performed more arduous duty in scouting and outpost service 
in the same period than did those companies. The first battle in which the 
regiment was engaged occurred on December 23, 1861, on Black river, called 
Blackwater. Companies A, B, D, F, G and I, with about sixty of the 
Fourth United States cavalry under Col. Jeff. C. Davis, attacked and cap- 
tured about 1,300 rebel recruits under ex-Gov. McGoffin, of Missouri, with 
1.000 stand of arms and all the camp equipage. Our loss was 4 men 
wounded, none from the First Iowa cavalry. January 8, 1862, a rebel 
camp, under the notorious Poindexter, was attacked and destroyed on Silver 
Creek, Missouri. In this engagement the regiment lost its first man, James 
Convey, Company F. He was mortally wounded and died the next day. This 
command marched more than 200 miles in six days. On the 15th, it was again 
on a raid to Warsaw, attacked and captured the rebel pickets, charged into 
town, and on the morning of the 16th, captured the rebel Gen. Price (son 
of "Old Pap"), Col. Dorsey, Maj. Cross and others. While Companies B 
and D were at Lexington, information was received that a slave who had 
escaped from his master and given important information and rendered effi- 
cient service to Col. Mulligan, at the time the colonel was in command at 
Lexington, had been recaptured and returned to his master; that a chain 
had been riveted around his neck, and he was a prisoner in his master's house. 
Lieut. J. D. Jenks, Company D, with a party of men, visited the plantation 
near the town to ascertain the facts; the master disclaimed any knowledge 
of the facts and stoutly denied that, any such man was on the plantation. 
During this conversation, Lieut. Jenks heard the clanking of a chain, and 
on searching the house he discovered the negro in one of the rooms with a 
large iron chain about twelve feet in length, riveted around his neck. He 
was at once taken to the blacksmith of Company B, Isaac Rhodes, now resid- 
ing at DeWitt, Iowa, the rivets cut, and the man given his freedom. The 
chain was sent to the Iowa State Historical Society, a lasting memento of the 
barbarity of slavery and the devilish inhumanity and cruelty of the Missouri 



570 IOWA IN AVAR TIMES. 

slaveholders, desperadoes, assassins and cut-tliroats encountered by the First 
Iowa cavalry in its campaigns in this sorely afflicted state. 

in the spring of 1862 the loyal element of the state was gaining the 
ascendancy in Missouri and Gov. Gamble ordered an enrollment of the mili- 
tia. By this proclamation the disloyal men were compelled to either enroll 
for the support of the government or leave the state. This created intense 
excitement, and most bitter feelings were engendered. Many left, preferring 
to cast their lot with the southern army. Murders, assassinations and other 
acts of outlawry were committed. 

In this state of affairs, as heretofore, the First Iowa cavalry was equal to 
the emergency. Night and day they were in their saddles — in a certain 
locality at night, the next morning they would be found twenty and thirty 
miles away, attacking and routing a rebel camp, or effectually breaking up a 
band of bushwhackers and desperadoes. It would require pages to give the 
history of its engagements, skirmishes and marches, as they were of almost 
every day occurrence with some portion of the regiment. Surrounded by 
bands of unprincipled, stealthy foes, exposed to many and secret dangers, 
amid darkness and storm, sunshine and rain, they never swerved from the 
line of duty, and rendered invaluable service to the state in this peculiarly 
trying period. All that early summer the regiment spent in scouts and 
raids, with here and there an important skirmish. 

In July the notorious guerrilla chief Quantril was encountered by a few 
companies of the First cavalry under Maj. Gower, Capt. Ankeny and Lieut. 
Reynolds. It was in the wooded cliffs of Big Greek in Cass county. Quan- 
tril had chosen this place for battle and prepared his ambush, but the First 
Iowa cavalry swept down on him like a whirlwind, and in less than 30 min- 
utes Quantril and his band were scattered in all directions. The loss of the 
First Iowa cavalry was 2 killed and 10 wounded. Total number of the com- 
mand killed, 9; total number wounded, 20. The loss of the guerrillas 
greatly exceeded this number in both killed and wounded, there being found 
after the battle a number dead and more than a dozen wounded, in one 
locality. Everything was abandoned in their haste to get away. QuantriLs 
saddle bags containing, among other things, the muster roll of his band, 
was captured. Being personally present on the field, the writer speaks from 
personal knowledge in reference to the affair. The greatest bravery was 
exhibited by the troops engaged, and they appeared to be equally well 
versed in bushwhacking tactics with the bushwhackers themselves. A small 
detachment, under Capt. Caldwell, sent out to capture some beef cattle 
belonging to Rebels, encountered, August 2d, in the timber on Clear Creek, 
about two miles from Taborville, a large band of guerrillas, well armed and 
mounted, under the notorious outlaw Clowers. A short and spirited engage- 
ment ensued. They had chosen a seemingly secure position. A charge was 
made, driving them from their cover, causing a speedy retreat. In this 
engagement our loss was 4 killed and 14 wounded, among whom was Capt. 
H. H. Heath. The loss of the enemy was 11 killed, number of wounded 
not known. 

In August, Col. Warren, with most of the regiment, made a hard march 
of 300 miles to join Gen. Blunt, who had been threatened by Gen. Coffee, 
ami was in pursuit of that Rebel after the battle of " Lone Jack." 

On November 28th, all the available men of the regiment were ordered on 
a scout to Yellville, Arkansas. As a result, a portion of the town was 
burned and 150 prisoners paroled. It returned to camp on the 30th, having 
marched 250 miles. 

On October 16th, the regiment was transferred to the Second brigade, 
Third division , Army of the Frontier, Brig. Gen. F. J. Herron commanding 
the division. 

On December 3d, the regiment was in camp at Twin Springs, on Wilson's 
Creek, about 12 miles south from Springfield, at "Camp Curtis." At 12 
o'clock on the 3d, the division marched to re-enforce Gen. Blunt at Cane 
Hill, Arkansas. At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 5th the division was in 



THE FIEST CAVALRY. 571 

camp about 4 miles from Elkhorn Tavern, a distance of 56 miles from Camp 
Curtis. 

On the 6th, the command marched at daylight. The First and Third 
battalions. First Iowa cavalry, under Col. Gower. with certain other cavalry, 
all under command of Col. Wickersham, Tenth Illinois cavalry, were ordered 
to reach Gen. Blunt without delay. At 12 o'clock, midnight, this cavalry 
force reported at Gen. Blunt's headquarters at Cane Hill, near Boonsboro, 
Arkansas, having marched 46 miles and having been inthe saddle for eighteen 
consecutive hours, marching a distance of 103 miies in three days. It was 
soon discovered that Gen. Hindman had "stolen a march" on Gen. Blunt, 
and was endeavoring to crush Gen. Herron in his endeavors to re-enforce 
him. In flanking Gen. Blunt, Gen. Hindman had unexpectedly fallen upon 
the army of Gen. Herron, who at once gave battle. Gen. Blunt hearing 
cannon and taking in the situation, ordered the cavalry forward and fol- 
lowed with his infantry and artillery at a quick pace. So rapid was his 
march that the last five miles were made in one hour. About 2 o'clock p. m. 
the cavalry struck the left rear of the rebel army in a growth of oak timber. 
The plucky Tenth Illinois cavalry ran their little mountain howitzers under the 
very noses of the rebel line of infantry and presented their compliments in a 
storm of grape and canister. The rebel line recoiled, but soon rallied, and 
captured one of the howitzers. Companies B and M, First Iowa cavalry, 
afterward re-captured the howitzer and brought it off the field. It being a 
most unfavorable place for a cavalry engagement, they were ordered to take 
position on the prairie, and the First Iowa cavalry ordered to the support of 
Allen's battery. The battery appeared to be in one constant sheet of flame, 
so rapid were the discharges. Three different times the Rebels charged it in 
immense numbers from their cover upon the wooded hillside, and as many 
times they would waver, halt and retreat in the utmost disorder, leaving the 
field strewn with the dead and wounded. During the night Gen. Hindman 
made an inglorious retreat over the Boston Mountains, leaving his dead un- 
buried and his wounded to be cared for by the union forces. On the 27th, 
the First took part in an important expedition to Van Buren, resulting in a 
defeat of some Rebels, and the capture of immense stores. 

The battle of Prairie Grove and the subsequent capture of Van Buren was 
of the utmost importance to the union cause. It saved Missouri from further 
devastation. It gave the union cause in Western Arkansas great assistance. 
It offered an opportunity for the union men who had been in hiding in the 
caves and fastnesses of the Boston Mountains and hunted like wild beasts by 
" southern gentlemen," to rally for country and home. It broke up in rout 
and demoralization an army of 25,000 men, con vincing many of them of the 
hopelessness of their cause. It was a powerfully stunning blow, from which 
the western portion of the so-called Southern Confederacy never recovered. 
No victorious rebel army ever appeared north of the Arkansas river after- 
ward. 

There was much countermarching and scouting performed by the regiment 
from January till April 21, 1862, when a detachment of 600 men under com- 
mand of Maj. Caldwell, with no transportation, was ordered out to join an 
expedition under Gen. William Vanclever, to attack Gen. Marmaduke in his 
raid into Southeastern Missouri, 100 men of the detachment being detailed as 
Gen. Vandever's body guard. The command marched to Pilot Knob, as the 
enemy was reported in that vicinity. Not finding the enemy there, a rapid 
march was nude to Fredericktown, and on the 26th it bivouacked about three 
miles east from Jackson and one mile from the rebal camp, inarching a dis- 
tance of 36 miles. A midnight attack was planned, the details of which were 
entrusted to the First Iowa cavalry. Company F, with 20 men under Lieut. 
Hursh, and two howitzers loaded with grape and canister, quietly made their 
way, capturing the pickets, to within about thirty yards of the unsuspecting 
Rebels, and discharged simultaneously howitzers and carbines into their 
camp. Before they had recovered from their surprise the First Iowa cav- 
alry charged upon the thoroughly demoralized men. In their haste to escape, 



572 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

everything was left behind. Many were killed; horses, arms, camp equip- 
age and several thousand dollars worth of stolen property was captured. 

By the middle of July the cavalry force was preparing to join Maj.-Gen. 
Fred. Steele's forces, then at Helena and vicinity, in the campaign against 
Little Rock, Ark. Everything being in readiness, the command moved July 
1st, marching by way of Fredericktown, crossing Black Mingo Swamp, 
reaching Bloomfield on the 11th, and remaining there until the 20th. All the 
sick of the command, numbering nearly 250, were left here in charge of 
Asst. Surgeon Charles H. Lothrop, First Iowa cavalry, and on the 20th the 
army renewed its march. 

While in camp near Greensboro, Capt. J. D. Jenks, Company D, and 
Lieut. Jacob Hursh, Company F, with 50 men from Companies D, E and F, 
were sent with dispatches to Helena. This was a most daring undertaking. 
They however passed through a section of country, held by the enemy for a 
distance of 100 miles, without loss or accident on their part. It was cer- 
tainly a most gallant affair, displaying courage and prudence in a remark- 
able degree, and was duly recognized by the commanding general in a com- 
plimentary order. 

A supply of rations having been received, the march was continued toward 
Helena, crossing the L'Anguille river near Marianna, August 6th. When 
within about 30 miles of Helena the direction of the march was changed 
toward the west, and on the 9th the command camped on White river, n ?ar 
Clarendon, Arkansas. The forces under Maj.-Gen. Steele were concentrated 
at this place preparatory to the advance upon Gen. Price's forces in and 
around Little Rock. 

On the 18th the army crossed White river at Clarendon, and on the 27th 
was fought the battle of Bayou Metoe, in which the regiment took a promi- 
nent part, driving the enemy across the bayou and making a dashing charge 
to save the only bridge across that deep and miry stream from destruction. 
The charge was led by Lt.-Col. Anderson, under a heavy fire from artil- 
lery and infantry upon the other side of the bayou. As the enemy had made 
preparations for the destruction of the bridge in case of necessity, the raate- 
terial was fired by them and the bridge burned, and the charge of the regi- 
men u into the very jaws of those batteries was of no avail. In this charge 
Lt.-Col. Anderson had his horse shot from under him and the regiment lost 
1 killed and 36 wounded, 1 mortally. The regiment now took the very 
advance of the cavalry in the move on Little Rock. It was September 10th. 

In reference to the part taken by the regiment in this engagement Brig.- 
Gen. J. W. Davidson, in his report, says: * * * "I ordered a 
vigorous advance of Glover's brigade, and when they became exhausted, 
within two miles of the city, threw Ritter's brigade and Strange's howitzers, 
supported by two squadrons of the First Iowa cavalry, under the gallant 
Capt. Jenks, into the city and on the heels of the enemy, saber in hand. At 
7 o'clock p.m. the capital was surrendered by the acting city authorities, and 
the United States arsenal, uninjured, with what stores remained in it, was 
repossessed." 

October 16th, the regiment removed camp about two miles down the river, 
where it remained during the winter. Here the men built comfortable 
cabins for themselves and sheds for their horses, doing picket, outpost_ duty 
and scouting. During the latter part of the campaign, which ended in the 
capture of Little Rock, and the month of October, the regiment, as also 
the whole army, suffered severely from sickness, consequent upon the terrible 
march through the swamps of Missouri and Arkansas. 

On November 26th, a force of 250 men, under command of Lt.-Col. Cald- 
well, was ordered to re-enforce the garrison at Pine Bluffs, Arkansas. On 
reaching that place the command marched in a southerly direction and 
entered Arkadelphia at midnight. It returned'to camp December 1st, hav- 
ing marched more than 250 miles. December 8th, a force of 260 men, under 
command of Capt. J. D. Jenks, Company D, with detachments of other 
regiments and ?, section of artillery, marched toward Arkadelphia. A few 



THE EIRST CAVALRY. 573 

miles south of Princeton, Dallas county, they encountered a force of the 
enemy numbering 800. The First Iowa cavalry being in the advance dis- 
mounted and drove them from their position, taking 39 prisoners, together 
with arms and camp equipage. 

In January of 1864, rive hundred of the regiment re-enlisted and became 
veterans. About this time Maj. (Jen. Steele, commanding the Department 
of the Arkansas, was preparing for what is known as the " Camden Expedi- 
tion." On March 23d, waiving its right to a veteran furlough at this time, 
the regiment joined the Seventh army corps under Maj. Gen. Steele, and 
took a prominent part in all the operations of that campaign. 

April 4th, it engaged aud routed Gen. Price's forces at Elkin's Ford, losing 
in killed and wounded 11 men. Lieut. Charles W. W. Dow was among the 
wounded, but would not leave the field to have his wound dressed. It was 
again on the advance from this place to Prairie d' Anne, a distance of twelve 
miles, skirmishing with the enemy the entire distance. Being on the right 
in the engagement which followed, it was the first to enter the rebel works. 
It here held the enemy in check until Gen. Steele moved his main force for 
Camden. On the 15tn it was again ordered to the front and engaged the 
enemy at Camden Cross Roads, about fifteen miles from Camden, at 7 o'clock 
in the morning, and so continued for six hours. At this time Brig. Gen. 
Rice ordered up the dismounted men of the regiment to deploy as skirmish- 
ers, and they continued so engaged until the enemy was driven, stubbornly 
contesting the ground, back through the city of Camden on the evening of 
the same day. 

On the 17th a detachment of the regiment, with detachments of other 
regiments, marched about twenty miles down the Washita river and cap- 
tured a steamboat laden with corn and other quartermaster and commissary 
supplies. Lieut. J. T. Foster, Company B, an old Mississippi river steamboat 
pilot, took the " wheel" and piloted the boat back to Camden. The loss of 
the regiment during this whole campaign was 5 killed, 3 taken prisoners 
and 25 wounded, a number severely, who died a few days afterward. Among 
the wounded were Lt.-Col. J. W. Caldwell and Lieut. Charles W. W. Dow. 
The campaign being now virtually ended, the veteran portion of the regi- 
ment, 520 strong, was relieved from duty and ordered home on veteran fur- 
lough. 

The recruits and non-veterans were left in command of Capt. James P. 
Crosby, Company M. The veterans having sold their horses to the govern- 
ment left for home under command of Lt.-Col. Caldwell, by the way of Pine 
Bluff, on the afternoon of April 24th, on foot. Camping a short distance 
from Camden that night, they commenced an early march the next morning, 
hoping to overtake a supply train which had been ordered to Pine Bluff on 
the 23d, with a considerable force for escort, under Lt.-Col. Drake, Thirty- 
sixth Iowa infantry. On the next day they were attacked by a column of 
Rebels at Moro Creek, and after a heroic resistance they fell back to Steele's 
main army on its way to Little Rock, and with him engaged in the battle of 
Saline river. 

On June 20th the regiment, its furlough expired, again left the state for 
the front, and on July 23th was at Macon, Missouri. The headquarters of the 
regiment remained here until October, at which time the command was 
ordered to Jefferson City to engage in the campaign against Gen. Price's raid 
into Missouri. On the 27th of September, the combined bands of desperadoes 
and guerrillas, under Bill Anderson, numbering nearly 400 men, all wearing 
blue overcoats, captured a passenger train going north, at Centralia Station, 
on the North Missouri Railroad. They robbed the passengers and killed 24 
soldiers who were on the train, three only of whom were armed. Among those 
killed were 7 veterans belonging to the First Iowa cavalry, as follows: Owen 
P. Gower, Company A; Oscar B. Williams and George W. Dilley, Company B; 
Edward Madera and John Russell, Company C; Joseph H. Arnold, Company 
E ; and Charle3 Carpenter, Company K. 

A construction train was following the passenger train, which was also 



574 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

captured, and the engineer compelled to run his locomotive over the bodies 
of the soldiers lying on the track. Two of the soldiers were scalped, and 
all more or less mutilated after death. The station was burned and the 
agent of the road killed. Not satisfied with this inhuman piece of deviltry, 
they set the train on fire and started it off toward Sturgeon, another station 
on the road, with the remaining passengers on it. The passengers, how- 
ever, escaped and walked to Sturgeon. About 3 or 4 o'clock p. m., Maj. 
Johnson, with 135 men belonging to Col. Krutzener's regiment Missouri 
state militia, arrived from Sturgeon. An engagement ensued, in which the 
militia was badly defeated. It was reported at the time that but 25 men 
returned to Sturgeon — 68 were left dead on the field. In this affair 130 men 
were killed. It was a, most cold blooded butchery, unequaled in atrocity by 
any similar act during the war. Maj. McDermott, with a detachment of 
the regiment, was immediately sent out in pursuit, but the bandit and 
human hyena had made good his escape. Gen. Price, with a following of 
30,000 men, in his raid into the state having reached the vicinity of Jef- 
ferson City, the regiment was ordered to that place. The enemy attacked 
the city on the 7th, but the regiment suffered no loss. 

On the 20th, Maj. -Gen. Rosecrans having taken the field, the veterans 
were ordered to report to him as body guard, and continued as such during 
the remainder of the campaign. After the defeat, ending in a most demor- 
alized rout and almost annihilation of the rebel army, they returned to War- 
rensburg. From thence they went to St. Louis, and by December 29th, 
were at Helena. During the time the veterans were in Missouri, the non- 
veterans and recruits, numbering about 700, under Maj. Jenks, were engaged 
in scouting and outpost duty at Little Rock. Col. Thompson, having arrived 
at Little Rock from Iowa about September 1st, now assumed command of 
the regiment. 

January 14th, Maj. Jenks, with detachments of the First Iowa and other 
regiments, was ordered by boat to Dardanelle, about 100 miles up the Ar- 
kansas river, at which place he engaged a rebel force of 1,600 men under 
Gen. Cooper, killing and wounding 90. For his bravery, the successful man- 
agement and termination of the affair, he was brevetted lieutenant colonel 
United States Volunteers. _ 

On the 22d, an expedition commanded by Brig.-Gen. E. A. Carr moved 
in the direction of Camden, Col. Thompson in command of the cavalry 
division, and Maj. McDermott commanding the regiment. Lieut. Charles 
W. W. Dow, Company F, is particularly mentioned for his daring gallan- 
try in leading the extreme advance guard on this expedition. 

By February 17th, the regiment had gone to Memphis, in the vicinity of 
which it remained, scouting occasionally, till June 15, when Gen. Grant 
ordered the command to march from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Texas. Jan- 
uary 31st, orders were received for muster out. 

No attempt will be made at this time to give in detail the history of the 
outrages and indignities to which the regiment was subjected, or the suf- 
ferings and privations it endured during this time at the hands of Gen. 
Custer. A most truthful narration of its trials and sufferings, and the 
incompetency and inhumanity of its commanding general, is published in 
the report of the adjutant general of the state of Iowa for the year 1867, 
written by Lt.-Col. A. G. McQueen. 

The sick and disabled of the division, numbering 214, having been ordered 
on board the hospital transport steamer Starlight, Surgeon Charles H. Loth- 
rop, First Iowa cavalry, in charge, to be taken to general hospital at New 
Orleans, the command left Alexandria, August 6th, and marched to Hemp- 
stead, Texas, a distance of about 240 miles, arriving at that place August 
26th, " with rations exhausted, many of the soldiers barefooted, almost 
naked and without blankets, and with no supplies provided." 

October 30th, the command marched for Austin, and arrived November 
4ch, where headquarters of the regiment remained until its muster out of 
the service. 



THE SECOND CAVALRY. 



575 



The muster out having 1 been accomplished, and all necessary preparations 
made for a homeward march, it left Austin on the 19th by the way of Bas- 
trop to Brenham, and from thence by railroad to Galveston, and by steamer 
Magnolia to New Orleans. Leaving Galveston on the 28th, it reached 
New Orleans March 2d. The next day it left on the steamer W. H. Osborn 
and arrived at Cairo, Illinois, on the 9th. On the 10th, it left by the way of the 
Illinois Central railroad, and arrived at Davenport, Iowa, on the 12th, and 
on the 16th it was discharged and finally paid. 

After nearly five years of arduous and most faithful service in preserving 
the integrity of the nation, with not a single stain to dim the brightness of 
its escutcheon, it was mustered out, and returning home, the patriot soldier 
became an honored citizen. This regiment was the second regiment of cav- 
alry mustered into the United States service during the rebellion, the First 
Illinois cavalry being the first. The total number of enlistments were 2,187, 
and the number of casualties 551. 

Field and Staff Officers of the First Iowa Cavalry. 



COLONELS. 



MAJORS. 



CHAPLAINS. 



Fitz Henry Warren. 
James O. Gower. 
Daniel Anderson. 
William Thompson. 

LIEUT. COLONELS. 

Chas. E. Moss. 
P. Gad Bryan. 
Daniel Anderson. 
Joseph W. Caldwell. 
Alex. G. McQueen. 



E. W. Chamberlain. 
James O. Gower. 
Wm. M. G. Torrence. 
P. Gad Bryan. 
Daniel Anderson. 
Joseph W. Caldwell. 
Levi Chase. 
William Thompson. 
Alex. G. McQueen. 
James D. JetLks. 
John McDermott. 
Thomas A. Bereman. 
Wm 8. Whisenand. 



Milton B. Cochran. 
Charles H. Lothrop. 

ASST. SURGEONS. 

David B. Allen. 
Charles H. Lothrop. 
John A. Ladd. 
Abraham B. Hershe. 
John I. Sanders. 
James Hervey. 
Asa Morgan. 



James W. Latham. 
John M. Coggeshall. 
James S. Rand. 

ADJUTANTS. 

Joseph C. Stone. 
David A. Kerr. 
John A. Donnell. 
Henry L. Morrill. 

QUARTERMASTERS. 

Martin L. Morris. 
Samuel C. Dickerson. 
Claus H. Albers. 
Wm. W. Flute. 



Battalion Adjutants— D. A. Kerr, J. M. Bryan, H. R. Robinson, J. S. Edsall. 
Battalion Quartermasters— J '. A. Landis, C. A. Case, W. H. Muzzey. 
Commissaries— H. L. Dashiell, R. T. Newell. 



SECOND IOWA CAVALRY. 

When the Second Iowa cavalry was mustered into the service at Daven- 
port, August 25, 1861, Washington L. Elliott, a cavalry captain of the regular 
army, was made its colonel. He had seen much service in the army, was a 
splendid organizer and disciplinarian, and a competent commander. In a very 
short time after going to the field he received high promotion, and parted from 
the regiment. March of 1862 found tne Second cavalry aiding Gen. Pope in 
the reduction of New Madrid and Island No. 10. The autumn of 1861 had 
been passed in drilling at Davenport, and the mid- winter in a similar duty 
at Benton Barracks, where owing to various causes not less than 60 of the 
regiment sickened and died. Gen. Pope had been a cavalry officer himself 
in his time, and he knew how to make useful the cavalry command when 
it reached him at New Madrid. Under him it was active and gallant every- 
where, and a squad of the Second regiment under Lieut. Schnetger, were the 
first union soldiers to enter the works at Island No. 10. Col. Elliott led the 
regiment and helped to secure the batteries with their great guns and the 
enormous stores of captured material of war. By the 1st of May, Pope's 
army, with the Second cavalry, was assisting in the celebrated siege of 
Corinth, which followed the battle of Shiloh. Here Col. Elliott was put in 
charge of a brigade, the Second Iowa and the Second Michigan cavalry, and 
Edward Hatch, the lieutenant colonel, assumed command of the regiment. 
Hatch was a man born to be a soldier. He had the military instinct, the 
war genius, the quick comprehension, the resolve to act and the personal 



576 ICTWA IN AVAR TIMES. 

bravery that led to victories. He was every inch a soldier, and the men of 
his command, taking on the military spirit of their leader, became one of the 
best cavalry regiments in the American service. Hatch volunteered at Mus- 
catine, entering the service as a captain of his noble regiment, was soon 
made lieutenant colonel, and by virtue of military merit so won the approba- 
tion of high commanders as to gain promotion after promotion, until, when 
the war ended, men saw him brevetted for gallantry as a major general in the 
regular army. He was in forty engagements, and as a rule the Second Iowa 
was with him. Its record is his record. 

On the 9th of May, 1362, the Second Iowa made the famous charge at 
Farmington, in front of Corinth. On the 8th, for the purpose of a reconnois- 
sance, Gen. Paine 's division had been sent some distance in advance of 
Pope's main command and was left beyond a small stream over night, the 
main force coming back to camp. The rebel general discovered this isolated 
division and resolved to captute or annihilate it. There was but one small 
bridge over which Paine could retreat, and even this the rebel artillery, after 
several hours hard fighting by the infantry on the 9th, was about to com- 
mand and render impossible of passage. The situation for Paine was most 
critical. At this moment the Second Iowa cavalry, led by Lt.-Ool. Hatch, 
hurried to the front and across the stream to his relief. Paine's men were 
met hurrying rearward pursued by an overwhelming rebel force with twenty- 
four pieces of artillery. To prevent interference with the bridge while Paine 
should attempt to cross, the Second Iowa was ordered to prepare to charge 
the batteries. In live minutes' time, the men, drawing their sabres, started 
on the fierce charge. In a semi-circle in front of them were twenty-four can- 
non pouring into this devoted band their rapid fire of grape and canister. A 
cloud of dust sheltered the advancing line for a few moments, but as it came 
in full view of the Rebels, the belching of the guns became simply terrific. 
Once the line came to a deep ditch where only half the horses could leap 
across; some tumbled down the embankment, some were struck by the mis- 
siles of the enemy, and all were disorganized and the line broken; and yet 
spite of the obstruction, spite of the storm of deadly missiles, and spite of a 
musketry fire from a great column of infantry that suddenly rose to its feet, 
hundreds of that brave line went on, charged the gunners at their posts, and 
took a battery, falling back only when annihilation waited on another 
moment's delay. The assault lasted but three minutes, but in that brief 
time a hundred men had been unhorsed and half as many killed or wounded. 
The charge saved Paine's division, lor under the excitement ot the melee he 
hurried it across the stream. In giving the order to the cavalry to charge, 
Paine had made a fearful blunder. Fifteen thousand men were behind those 
guns supporting them. But it was a gallant charge not surpassed for daring 
in all the war. The English troops at Balaklava were not more brave than 
the boys of the Second cavalry charging the murderous guns at Farmington. 

Captains Egbert and Lundy and Lieut. Owen were wounded. Maj Coon, 
Maj. Hepburn, Captains McConnell, Crocker, Kendrick, Eaton, Egbert, 
Lundy, Bishop, Graves and Freeman, and Lieutenants Moore, Reily, Foster, 
Bilden, Owen, Hurton, Queal, Schmitzer, Metcalf and Eystra were all men- 
tioned for gallant conduct. There might have been mentioned every man 
in that daring command. 

On the 2sth of May, the regiment, together with the Second Michigan 
cavalry, the whole led by Elliott, dashed around to the south of Corinth in the 
night, and destroyed the railroad in the rebel rear, together with large sup- 
plies, capturing also many prisoners. It was a brilliant exploit and made 
Hatch a colonel and Elliott a btigadier. About this time Philip Sheridan 
became colonel of the Second Michigan, the comrade regiment ot our Second, 
and the two leaders, Hatch and Shei*dan, and their two dashing regiments, 
became distinguished in the story of the war. The command had constant 
hard scouting and chasing all those Corinth days; almost day and night they 
were in the saddle. On the 1st of July, the two regiments, then led by 
Sheridan, fought the cavalry battle of Booneville. It was a hard encounter, 



THE SECOND CAVALRY. 57? 

but a fine victory was won by Sheridan over Chalmers, who had attacked 
with 5,000 men. Hatch and Sheridan both showed their fighting qualities 
here, and the latter received the star of a brigadier. A couple of months of 
rest in camp near Rienzi followed, disturbed only by an attempted surprise 
on the part of the rebel Faulkner with 2,500 troops. Faulkner got surprised 
himself and badly whipped, as Sheridan chased him in utter rout for many 
miles. With September of 1862, hard riding, scouts and skirmishes com- 
menced again. On the 19th, after a ride of 45 miles, and skirmishing with 
the enemy, the regiment stood to horse all night at the battle of Iuka. 
Soon came the battle of Corinth, and the extent of that victory was greatly 
added to by the extraordinary activity, by day and by night, of Hatch's cav- 
alry. " It has been the eye of the army," said Rosecrans with truth, for it had 
guarded every road in the vicinity, scouted everywhere, and at last was present 
in the battle. In November and December, the regiment, now led by Maj. 
Coon, took a constant and important part in Grant's great move through 
Central Mississippi toward Vicksburg. It was present in the unnecessary 
defeat at Coffeeville, where Col. Hatch, now leading the brigade, barely 
saved the union troops engaged from utter rout. The Second cavalry lost 22 
men killed and wounded at Coffeeville. It then followed Grant's army as a 
rear guard in its retreat toward Memphis, and shortly went into winter 
quarters at La Grange. The early spring again saw the Second cavalry 
riding all over northern Mississippi in little expeditions and scouts, and by 
April 16th, it was ready to start on what was known as the Grierson raid. 
The expedition was a great success, though made with a small body of men. 
It was for the purpose of destroying railroads in Central Mississippi, and 
to the rear of Vicksburg. Great damage was done and great stores were cap- 
tured. The column lei by Hatch, only 500 strong, separated from Grier- 
son and fought its own way to Palo Alto and back to La Grange, defeat- 
ing, at the former place, a cavalry force four times as great as his own. 
Grierson's column rode on to the Mississippi river at Baton Rouge, and 
both he and Hatch had inflicted great damage on the state and created 
a diversion in favor of Gen. Grant. It was one of the most brilliant cav- 
alry exploits of the war, said Gen. Grant. The regiment could not remain 
idle and very soon Hatch led it, with some other troops, including the 
Sixth Iowa infantry, on a raid to Okalona and back. 

Shortly, too, Maj. Coon led a part of the Second and detachments of other 
regiments in a splendid raid on Grenada. It was a hard ride, but the com- 
mand destroyed sixty locomotives and great army supplies, mills, shops and 
depots. Coon was gone eleven days on this raid. The regiment soon went 
to Memphis, where it remained in quiet till the end of November. Once 
during this breathing spell Lt.-Col. Hepburn led the command against a 
rebel column, threatening the garrison at Colliersville. A brisk fight took place 
and the Rebels leaving 200 or 300 dead and wounded fled from the field. 
On the 4th of December the cavalry under Hatch hurried by hard rides to 
Moscow, and there fought quite a battle, defeating Gen. S. D. Lee, though 
his command lost nearly a hundred killed and wounded, and he was himself 
shot through the lungs. Early in February the regiment moved with a col- 
umn under Gen. Sooy Smith, marching to divert the Rebels from Sherman on 
his Meridian raid, and if possible join him. Smith's expedition failed in its 
purpose and never reached Sherman. His column captured West Point, 
however, and immense stores, but on falling back from there, was attacked 
by Gen. Forrest and came very near being destroyed. There was hard fight- 
ing by the Second cavalry under Maj. Coon and some of the other troops, 
but many stampeded, and flying in a great unorganized mob to the rear, 
brought disgrace on the expedition. Lt.-Col. Hepburn led a brigade of 
the Second Iowa and Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Illinois cavalry. The Second 
Iowa saved the whole command from destruction, though it had been charged 
by Forrest on front and flanks repeatedly. It was ordered to fall back, but, 
instead, staid at the most desperate point of the field and fought five times its 
own numbers, until 50 of its men, among them Lieut. Dwire, lay stretched 

I. W. T.— 37 



57S 



IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 



on the field. Who was to blame that a handful of troops were left unsupported 
to fight Forrast's whole army, while so many of Smith's men were rushing 
to the rear, never will be known. On March 28th, many of the regiment re- 
enlisted as veterans and in April went to Iowa on furlough. That summer 
of 1864 was largely spent by the regiment in raiding and scouting about 
Mississippi and Middle Tennessee, without any engagements of great conse- 
quence, although it participated in the fight at Tupelo. Coon was now a colonel 
and part of the time in command of a brigade, while Maj . C. C. Horton, one of 
the Second's very best officers, led the regiment. Hatch now led a division. 
By the middle of November Hatch's division, including Coon's brigade and 
the Second Iowa cavalry, was engaged in the hardest campaign of its history. 
It was in resisting Hood's invasion of Tennessee. With headquarters near 
Florence, it watched and fought his advance step by step, and formed with 
Coon's brigade the rear guard of the union army as it fell back to Franklin, in 
the battle itself playing an important part at the left. Then followed the battle 
of Nashville, described in chapter 28, in which the gallant Second, with the 
whole of Hatch's division dismounted, fought as infantry, storming and cap- 
turing forts and driving the enemy in dismay. Then commenced the famous 
pursuit in which the cavalry nearly destroyed what was left of Hood's army. 
Coon's brigade, in the hard rides and the constant fighting, did as much as 
any command in the union army. It captured in that pursuit more than a 
thousand prisoners, fifteen cannon, numerous battle flags and important war 
material It lost in the whole campaign some 60 men, 14 of whom were 
killed. It was the regiment's last active campaign. It had done enough. 
It was entitled to all the great honors afterward received on coming home 
to Iowa. Officers and men had been heroes. The spring and summer was 
passed in unimportant duties in Mississippi, and in October of 1365 the 
regiment was mustered out. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Second Iowa Cavalry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


W. L. Elliott. 


Ed. Hatch. 


Geo Reeder. 


C. G. Truesdell. 


Ed. Hatch. 


W. P. Hepburn. 


Geo. H. Noyes. 


J. J. Watson. 




D. E. Coon. 








H. W. Lore. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


F. A. Kendrick. 


Geo. H. Noyes. 


W. B. Blaney. 


Ed. Hatch. 


W. W. Eaton. 


E. D. Yule. 


D. McGregor. 


W. P. Hepburn. 


Chas. C. Horton. 


J. R. Burgess. 


B. F. Diffenbacker. 


Chas. C. Horton. 


G. Schnitger. 


S. E. Jones. 


H. B. Sudlow. 


Battalion Adjutants. 
G. Schnitger. 


C. P. Moore. 
S. Foster. 


J. J. Watson. 
Commissaries. 


Battalion Quarter- 
masters. 


J. H. Freeman. 




R. McC. Kirtland. 


S. Gilbert. 


W. W. Mills. 


C. F. Marden. 


W. W. C. Miller. 


Jas. Hannam. 


T. G. Bnahain. 


T. Sydenham. 




G. R.Ammond. 



THIRD IOWA CAVALRY. 

This regiment, more than a thousand strong, was raised, organized, and 
equipped by Col. Cyrus Bussey, at the request of Maj. Gen. Fremont. It 
was to be one of the "ci'ack" cavalry regiments of the service, and its history 
pro"ed its commanders and its men to be up to every expectation. Col. Bus- 
sey was a cavalry officer of the first order, and his command was thoroughly 
drilled and disciplined while at Benton Barracks in the early winter of 1861. 
On December 12th, he was ordered to send a battalion of his regiment to Jef- 
ferson City. Companies E, F, G and H marched at once under Maj. Cald- 
well, and nearly two years passed away before the gallant command was 
again united. Early in February of 1862, the remainder of the regiment, 
eight companies under Col. Bussey, were ordered to Rolla, where another 
division of the regiment occurred, Companies I and K being sent under 



THE THIRD CAVALRY. 579 

Maj. Wm. C. Drake to garrison the town of Salem. Col. Bussey proposed to 
join Gen. Curtis's army in the Southwest, and probably the first important 
order he received in war times was a teleerram from Curtis, saying: " Come 
on by short route; make forced marches and overtake me." Curtis was 200 
miles away. The roads were very bad and the trains had to be left behind. 
At Springfield, Company L was detailed to garrison the town while the 
remainder of the regiment marched on through severe cold, and without 
rations, till it joined Gen. Curtis at Sugar Creek. It had been a terribly hard 
march in mid-winter, but now the command was with the army at the front, 
and eager for battle. After repeated reconnoissances, the rebel army, 40,000 
strong, was discovered, advancing to attack Gen. Curtis at Cross Hollows. 
The regiment's first engagement was in beating the Rebels off, who were 
attacking Sigel at Bentonsville. Then came the ever memorable 7th of 
March — the battle of Pea Ridge. " On that day," writes an officer of the 
regiment, " the Third cavalry formed part of a brigade commanded by Col. 
Bussey, and was ordered to attack the enemy then passing in heavy column to 
the rear of Gen. Curtis's army. Curtis had fallen back to Sugar Creek. His 
position was being flanked by Van Dorn, and his army was in a most critical 
situation. While the other regiment of the brigade was forming in line to 
support a battery, we were ordered to advance toward the enemy, supposed 
to be about half a mile distant. We had not proceeded more than 200 
yards, when we found ourselves confronted by a heavy body of infantry who 
fired a volley, killing and wounding several of our men." Bussey's command 
consisted of the Third Iowa cavalry, 235 men and officers, led by Lt.-Col. 
Trimble, the Benton Hussars, Col. Merritt, a part of the First Missouri cav- 
alry, Col. Ellis; two companies of the Fremont Hussars, Lieut. Howe, and 
three guns of Elbert's battery. The conduct of the Third cavalry was so 
gallant and heroic in the action that followed, the writer can best describe 
it in the language of Col. Bussey. Aftet feeling of the woods and the bit of 
prairie to which his line advanced, he narrates how it came in full view of 
the cavalry of the enemy, passing along a half mile distant to the north, and 
to the rear of Curtis's army. Gen. Osterhaus being present, ordered the little 
battery to open fire on the passing column. The First Missouri cavalry stood 
to the right and left of the guns, with the Third Iowa cavalry in the rear. 

" While forming the Benton Hussars in line on the right flank of the Third 
Iowa, and facing west, I was ordered by Gen. Osterhaus to send two com- 
panies down the road to the west to charge the enemy's line, if practicable, 
at a point supposed to be about half a mile distant. This order was com- 
municated by me to Lt.-Col. Trimble, commanding Third Iowa cavalry, who 
immediately advanced with his command in column of fours, which was 
necessary, the road leading along a fence on the south, with thick brush 
and woods on the north. 

"The Benton Hussars were now in line of battle, about 100 yards to the 
right and rear of the battery, and the Fremont Hussars were yet in column 
of fours, having just arrived on the ground. The Third Iowa cavalry gal- 
loped down the road, and going beyond the edge of the woods or timber on 
the west side of the prairie, they unexpectedly found themselves in front of 
several lines of infantry, heretofore unseen, and who were drawn up in line 
to the front and right of our men at short musket range. 

"The companies of the Third Iowa cavalry were wheeled into line facing 
the enemy, it being impossible for them to advance in column further, when 
they at once received a deadly fire from the overwhelming numbers of the 
foe, who were partially concealed and protected by the woods and brush. 
A large number of my men and horses were here killed and wounded, and 
Lt.-Col. Trimble, at the head of the column, was severely wounded in the 
head. This fire was returned by the Third Iowa cavalry from their revolvers 
with considerable effect. 

" Just at this moment a large force of the enemy's cavalry charged from the 
north upon different portions of our cavalry line, passing through the line 
into the open field in our rear. The Third Iowa cavalry now charged this 



580 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

force, and an exciting running fight ensued between these forces, the enemy 
fleeing and being pursued by my forces to the south. They were followed 
by the Third Iowa cavalry alone, to the woods on the south side of the large 
open field. The loss of the enemy in this running fight was very heavy and 
estimated by me, from the most reliable information I have been able to 
obtain, at 82 men. A portion of this same charge of the enemy's cavalry 
was upon the battery, and First Missouri cavalry supporting it. The cav- 
alry was compelled to give way. I ordered the Benton Hussars to charge, 
which they failed to do, but fell back. The Fremont Hussars, being in rear 
and not in position, were compelled to give way. The guns, being left 
unsupported, were captured by the enemy, who, not being able to take them 
from the field, burned them. The cavalry, failing to rally, fell back through 
the woods to the large open field through which we had first marched, where 
they met the infantry and artillery of Gen. Osterhaus's brigade in line of 
battle. Being left on the field of the first action without any force, the cav- 
alry in reserve having failed to obey my orders, I followed to the open field 
and found two companies of the First Missouri cavalry being formed in line 
by Maj. Hubbard. After seeing the First Missouri in line, I sent Adjt. 
John W. Noble, who had remained with me on the field the whole time, to 
bring up the companies of the Third Iowa cavalry to our new position, they 
having pursued the enemy through the fields, as above stated, and not yet 
made their appearance. He soon returned with all the companies, having 
met them coming in perfect order to the place desired, they having returned 
toward the camping ground, and Maj. Perry being in command. The enemy 
immediately advanced to the western edge of the field in which our new 
position was taken, when a general engagement ensued. At this time I 
ordered the First Missouri cavalry to take position on the extreme left in 
the woods, which was on the east of our main position. A force of the 
enemy made their appearance here, evidently attempting to turn our left 
flank. I sent the Third Iowa cavalry to support Col. Ellis, when our force 
advanced. The enemy withdrew, and were followed by Col. Ellis about two 
miles, and did not show themselves again in this quarter. 

"Our loss, out of 235 men engaged, was 25 kdled, 17 wounded, and 9 
missing." 

On the 28th of February was fought the severe little battle of Salem. 
Only the two companies under Maj. Drake took part in the conflict, and 
as the union force was commanded by Col. Wood of Missouri, the credit 
for the victory has usually been given entirely to his state. How much 
of it was due to the Third Iowa cavalry, however, is read between the 
lines of Col. Wood's report. After three or. four days of hot pursuit of a 
rebel force under Coleman and Woodsides, the union cavalry overtook 
them one morning about breakfast time. "Ten miles more," says Col. 
Wood, "brought us to their camp — hastily deserted, and the prepared 
breakfast untasted. Being satisfied they were not far ahead, I cautioned 
my advance and flankers to be on the alert to prevent surprise, and 
pushed on. About five miles further I heard sharp firing in front, and 
supposing my advance had encountered the retreating Rebels, I galloped 
forward to find my guard engaged with the whole rebel force, estimated 
at from 600 to 1,000 men. They had taken a strong position in one of 
those pest holes of creation, an Arkansas swamp, and we, within four 
rods of them. Just then a ball struck Sergt. Rodakin and knocked him 
from his horse. Turning, 1 found my whole battalion, including the 
howitzers, at my side, followed by Maj. Drake and the Third Iowa cav- 
alry. Our sudden appearance seemed to paralyze the enemy for a moment, 
and knowing everything depended upon immediate action, I ordered the 
howitzers into position to shell the swamp. I also ordered the men of ray 
battalion to dismount, every fourth man to take the horses to the rear. I 
also ordered Maj. Drake to the right of the swamp. This order was obeyed 
in an instant, and the men advanced upon the enemy. Sergt. Moody threw 
two shells, but too high to affect those in our immediate front. By this time 



THE THIRD CAVALRY. 581 

the enemy rallied and. poured upon us a deadly fire. My bugler, who was at 
ray side, fell from his horse. Young Watt was killed instantly at the cannon . 
Pierce, another one at the cannon, was badly wounded. Young Kendall 
fell mortally wounded; First Lieut. R. H. C. Mack of Company A, while 
leading his men bravely forward, fell mortally wounded. Several others 
were wounded. Turning, 1 rode to the howitzer, and directed Sergt. Moody 
to load with grape and lower his piece. Just then my horse was pierced 
with two balls, but Sergt. Moody instantly obeyed the order, when the Rebels 
broke in the greatest confusion, my men on foot advancing from tree to tree. 
The enemy at this time attempted to retreat, but were met by a charge from 
the Iowa boys on the north which drove them back into the swamp with a 
loss of 20 prisoners and a large number killed and wounded. Two prisoners, 
belonging to Maj. Bowen's battalion were also released. Among the 
prisoners is a nephew of the celebrated Jim Lane, of Kansas. 

" From the 6th of April to the 1st of May, we were on the march with Gen. 
Curtis, moving via Cassville, Forsythe, Osage and West Plains, Missouri, 
and Salem, Arkansas, to Batesville — a distance of nearly 300 miles, over 
mountains and rivers, and through a country alrn03t destitute of supplies for 
man or beast. In one of the skirmishes, May 30th, Capt. J. Anderson was 
wounded. Gen. Curtis's army evacuated Batesville on the 25th, and started 
for Clarendon, on White river. We moved to Village Creek, six miles south 
of Jacksonport, on the 26th. On the 27th of June, the gallant Lieut. Griswold, 
while guarding a forage train, was ambushed and killed, with several of 
his companions. 

" We arrived at Clarendon on the 8th, but the gunboats and troops had been 
gone several hours, they having left for the Mississippi river at 10 o'clock A. 
m. We were now desititute of anything to subsist on, and had been for 
several days; the weather was intensely hot, and no water to be had on the 
route of our march except swamp water. The suffering of the men was very 
great, but no complaint was made. 

" On the 10th of June, Col. Bussey was assigned to command the Third 
brigade, First division. Maj. Wm. C. Drake assumed command of the regi- 
ment. We left Clarendon on the 11th, and after a tedious march of three 
days, as rear guard of the army and trains, arrived at Helena. During the 
summer, we were kept on duty, scouting the country from White river to 
the St. Francis, having frequent skirmishes, but met no force of the enemy 
worth special mention. On the 1st of October, the infantry of this brigade 
having been ordered to Missouri, we were transferred to the Third brigade, 
Fourth division. 

"Capt. Thomas J. Taylor, of Company T, died on the 24th day of July, on 
board steamer Silver Moon, while en route home on furlough. He was buried 
at Cairo. During the months of September, Ootober and November, we con- 
tinued on active duty, traveled several hundred miles, captured many pris- 
oners, and brought in a large number of horses and other valuable property. 

' ' On September 20th the regiment formed a part of 2,000 cavalry under Col. 
Bussey, marching with Gen. Hovey's expedition against Arkansas Post. The 
movement was a failure, owing to the low water preventing Hovey's trans- 
ports and infantry going up White river, but the cavalry had a severe time of 
it, marching through miserable swamps, in mud and darkness, with cold 
rains and for two days without a bite to eat. 

" On the 10th of January, 1863, the army under Gen. Gorman embarked 
for White river for the purpose of capturing Little Rock. 

" We were ordered to go with the army and were ready to march, but the 
ordered was countermanded, Col. Bussey having been assigned to the com- 
mand of the district of Eastern Arkansas. 

" Maj. Wm. C. Drake died of disease on the 24th of November, after which 
the regiment was commanded Maj. O. H. P. Scott. During the winter we 
were engaged scouting without meeting any considerable force of the enemy, 
until the 5th of March, when we routed a rebel force near Madison, Arkan- 
sas, capturing a number of prisoners. On the 4th of April, Lieut. Niblack, 



582 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

Company D, with 25 men charged into Madison, killed and wounded a num- 
ber and captured 56 prisoners. The remainder of the rebel force, over 100 
strong, was driven off. In the charge, Lieut. Niblack was severely wounded. 
All that spring, and until in June, the command had been engaged in scout- 
ing or else working on the defenses of Helena. Nothing of importance 
transpired. 

" We had now been at Helena eleven months. Col. Bussey had made fre- 
quent requests to be sent to Vicksburg, then the scene of Gen. Grant's 
operations, but was unsuccessful until the 4th of June, when he received 
orders to embark on transports and report to Gen. Grant. We arrived 
at Snyder's Bluffs on the 8th. Col. Bussey was appointed chief of cavalry 
by Maj. Gen. Sherman and assumed command of all the cavalry forces. 
The rebel army under Joe. Johnston was concentrating on the line of the 
Big Black. From the day we arrived at Snyder's Bluffs until the sur- 
render of Vicksburg, we were in the saddle night and day, scouting the 
country along the Big Black to Mechanicsburg and watching the fords and 
ferries on that stream. The weather was excessively hot. 

" On the 5th we received orders to accompany Gen. Sherman's army, then 
moving to attack Joe. Johnston; crossed the Big Black on the 6th, and on 
the 8th encountered the rebel Gen. Jackson's cavalry division. We were the 
advance and charged the enemy several times, driving him several miles. 
We were engaged with the enemy almost every clay until the 16th, during 
which time we traveled 300 miles, visited Calhoun. Batter's Bluffs, Vernon 
and other points. We arrived at Keokuk about the 29th of January, where 
we were detained almost in sight of our houses more than two weeks, wait- 
ing to be mustered out. We were furloughed on the 12th of February, and 
on the 12th of March were in rendezvous again at Keokuk. During the 
thirty days 700 men were enlisted for our regiment. 

" We received orders to report at Memphis, Tennessee. Col. Bussey having 
been promoted, we left St. Louis under command of Lt.-Col. H. C. Caldwell, 
who was commissioned colonel on the 4th of May, 1864." 

To Glenn Lowe, a captain of the Third cavalry, the writer is indebted for 
some valuable memoranda of the regiment, furnished to the adjutant general 
of the state. The writer of the first part of the regiment's history is not 
known, though the memoranda are correct. 

GUNTOWN. 

On the 10th of June occurred the disastrous fight at Guntown, in Missis- 
sippi, Gen. Sturgis having led a force of 5,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry out 
from Memphis to meet Forrest. Guntown is 100 miles or more southeast of 
Memphis and on the Mobile railroad. Gen. Grierson led the two brigades 
of union cavalry and on that hot day in June his advance struck the forces 
of Gen. Forrest, well posted on a long, semi-circular ridge with open fields 
sloping in front of him, and at their edge a nearly impassable creek. The 
cavalry at once became actively and desperately engaged, and word was 
sent for the infantry, five miles behind, to hurry up. Sturgis rushed the 
men forward, and, like Banks at Pleasant Hill, sent his wagon trains to the 
front. It is said that no attempt at generalship was thought of by Sturgis — 
no flanking, no demonstrations, no anything, except the hurling of a lot of 
exhausted men into battle without plan or order. The cavalry did its best, and 
possibly the infantry did the same for a little while, but after the cavalry 
had been withdrawn, the infantry was routed and the whole command fell 
back with loss of trains and prisoners, and, as far as the commander was 
concerned, with loss of honor. The whole army returned to Memphis, and 
had it not been for the gallantry of Winslow's cavalry brigade, it would have 
been wholly lost. That brigade, comprising the Third and Fourth Iowa, and 
Tenth Missouri cavalry, had not only fought splendidly in the battle, resist- 
ing desperate charges, but it was the savior of the army on the disastrous 
retreat. It was the only organized body in all Sturgis's flying forces. It 



THE THIRD CAVALRY. 



583 



twice repulsed the enemy in the main conflict, and fired the last gun in the 
retreat. For fifty-four hours the men had been in the saddle, fighting the 
greater part of the time without forage for their horses, or food for them- 
selves. Col. John W. Noble led the Tnird Iowa, and with a gallantry only 
equalled by the hard fighting men of his command. The Fourth Iowa was 
led by Maj. A. R. Pierce, both regiments showing a degree of endurance, 
pluck and valor that reflected credit on the state. At Ripley, on the retreat, 
the Third was again under severe fire and bravely resisted superior numbers 
of the victorious rebel army, checking and defeating them. In this en- 
counter Lieut. Miller of Company D was slain, with several of the enlisted men. 
The Fourth regiment also fought at Ripley, and enabled the infantry to 
escape. 

The Third Iowa lost some 63 or 70 men in the unfortunate expedition, 
and the Fourth Iowa possibly as many, the only feature that redeemed 
the expedition from disgrace being the heroism of Winslow's brigade of cav- 
alry. Lieut. McKee and Capt. Curkendall were mentioned for bravery. 
Reuben Delay was wounded. Scarcely was the brigade in camp at Mem- 
phis before it was ordered to march against Forrest again, this time with the 
expedition of Gen. A. J. Smith to Tupelo. This time they marched to vic- 
tory. A narrative of the battle is given elsewhere. Suffice it to say that at 
Oldtown, the day after Tupelo, the Third cavalry, in a splendid charge under 
Col. Noble, won new laurels for itself and the state. The Fourth cavalry 
also joined in the honors of the victory. Maj. Duffield, Captains Grail, 
Brown, McCrary and Johnson were specially mentioned for gallantry. 

On the 2d of September, Maj. Benj. S. Jones, with 500 officers and men, 
crossed over the Mississippi to Brownsville and marched in pursuit of Price, 
who was again invading Missouri. After a long march to Cape Girardeau, 
the command (as a part of the army led by Gen. Mower) took steamers and 
went up to St. Louis, and again marched up the Missouri valley for Independ- 
ence. The Fourth Iowa cavalry and the Tenth Missouri cavalry were with them 
and the three regiments formed the brigade led by Col. Winslow. The whole 
command joined Gen. Pleasonton near Independence just as an engagement 
was going on. It was at once led into the conflict and fought till ten that night, 
driving the enemy for several miles into Kansas. Acting Adjt. Jas. H. Watts 
was mortally wounded in the action. Early the next morning was fought the 
battle of the " Big Blue." The enemy was strongly posted, and resisted the union 
attack, when Col. Winslow led his brigade in a magnificent charge that 
drove the enemy, and resulted in the capture of several battle flags, prison- 
ers and trophies of victory. The gallant colonel was himself wounded in 
the charge. The Third Iowa lost nearly 20 men. A swift and terrible pursuit 
of the enemy was made and on the morning of the 25th, Winslow's brigade, 
now led by Col. Benton, and in the advance of Curtis's pursuing army, 
charged on and routed a strong force from its chosen position. It had been 
a fine charge and it about ended the career of Price's flying army. Many 
guns, flags and prisoners were taken. " They are glorious trjops," said Gen. 
Pleasonton in an official report. " No troops could win a prouder record for 
themselves." 

In the campaign the Third cavalry lost nearly 50 men. In the last battle, 
known as the battle of Osage, Private James Dunlavy, of the Third Iowa 
cavalry, captured Marmaduke, a rebel major general, single handed. He 
received for the brave deed many tokens of honor from his fellow soldiers, 
while citizens of Fort Scott presented him a case of ivory-handled revolvers. 
He was a brave Iowa boy, and his act had required nerve and courage. 
Sergt. C. M. Young captured Gen. Cabell on the same battle field. Maj. 
Jones, who led the regiment, spoke of every man and officer of his command 
as deserving honor for the campaign. While Maj. Jones and his 500 men 
were returning from chasing Price out of Missouri, the remaining por- 
tion of the Third cavalry under Col. Nob'.e were taking part in an expedition 
against the Mobile railroad under Grierson through Mississippi. There was 
little hard lighting on the way, but the amount of property and stores for 



584. IOWA IN "WAR TIMES. 

war destroyed by the Third cavalry was very great. The raid proved as 
useful to the union cause as a great battle would have done. 

By the first of the new year, 186-3, the two parts of the regiment had 
united at Louisville, and were at once remounted and newly equipped to 
take part in the last campaign of the war, the great "raid " of Gen. Wilson. 
Four regiments of Iowa cavalry took part in this campaign— one of the 
most important and daring cavalry campaigns narrated in history. It com- 
menced at Eastport, on the Tennessee river, on March 21, 1865, and ended at 
Macon with the close of the war. The distance marched by the column was 
not less than 600 miles, and on its way the swift riding army, 14,000 strong, 
took not less than seven fortified towns, mostly by assault; captured more 
than 103 cannon, burned 300,000 bales of cotton, then worth fifty millions of 
dollars; destroyed railroads, bridges, factories and army stores beyond com- 
putation in value; captured thousands of prisoners and left Alabama a desola- 
tion and a waste. In all this wonderful campaign the Iowa cavalry regiments 
bore an honorable and a conspicious part. The Third, Fourth and Fifth 
regiments were in Upton's division; the Eighth in the division of McCook. 
The first resistance of the enemy was not far from Montevallo, where the Third 
Iowa made a fine charge on the Rebels, fighting with sabres and at close 
quarters, defeating them and driving them from the field. Beyond Maplesville 
another stand was made by the Rebels, and again the Third Iowa charged 
and drove them in retreat. Captains Arnim and Brown and Color Sergt. 
John Wall were mentioned for gallantry by Col. Noble, leading the regi- 
ment. Lieut. Veatch was wounded in the engagement. Ten men were 
wounded and 17 horses were killed or wounded, but the Third Iowa had put, 
the famous Rebel, Forrest, on the run. Selma was the next important town 
captured, and its long lines of fortifications were taken by assault, the Third 
and Fourth Iowa being at the front in the conflict. Led by Gen. Wilson 
in person, two whole divisions charged on the works, and in an hour Selma 
and its vast stores, ammunition and prisoners were in the union hands. 
The city of Montgomery next fell without a blow, and Iowa cavalry rode 
through the streets of the Confederacy's first capital with banners flying and 
bugles sounding. In a few days the city of Columbus, with ita strong fortifi- 
cations and well manned batteries, was attacked, and Winslow's brigade of 
the Third and Fourth Iowa and the Tenth Missouri, made the principal 
assault. It was April 16th. The resistance madeagainst the first attack of 
the union line had been severe, and late that evening six companies of the 
Third Iowa were dismounted, led to the right of the rebel works, and 
ordered to assault the intrenchments and a battery. In the darkness, and 
over rough and unknown ground , the line advanced with a cheer and took the 
outer works. "Our only guide in that darkness," said Col. Noble, "was the 
flash and roar of the enemy's guns. ' ' A charge by a part of the Tenth Missouri 
cavalry to a bridge near by only resulted in a fiercer fire on the Iowa boys, but 
they held their ground, and shortly another advance over heavy abatis, and a 
lodgement was gained in the works flanking the battery. It was now short 
work. Other troops of the brigade were charging in, the battery flag and run- 
ners of the garrison were taken by some of the Third Iowa, and shortly the 
position was in the union hands. Lieut. Forker was the first inside the fort. 
The little command lost the gallant Lieut. Miller and 2 enlisted men killed 
and 17 wounded. Columbus was taken, and the superior officers of the army 
pronounced the gallant charge of the Third Iowa as heroic and worthy of all 
praise. For its services, and as a mark of distinction, Col. Noble, with his 
gallant regiment, was selected by Gen. Winslow as provost guard for the 
city and went on duty the same night of the assault. The conduct of the 
Third won it great honor and the charge was the more noticeable, as it wa3 
the last cavalry fight of the war. On the 21st of April the regiment reached 
Macon with the rest of the expeditionary forces, and here learned that the 
cruel war had come to an end. It was shortly mustered out and reached 
home on the loth of May. Its last campaign had been its most_ glorious. 
Col. Noble, who had so gallantly led the regiment through all its recent 



THE FOURTH CAVALRY. 



585 



victories grave just praise to his subordinate officers, and among the specially 
mentioned were the names of Captains McKee and Wilson; Private Tibbetts 
who captured a battery flag at Columbus, Lt.-Col. Jones, Lieut. Crawford 
and the faithful chaplain, James W. Latham. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Third Iowa Cavalry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAINS. 


Cyrus Bussey. 


C. H. Perry. 


D. L. McGugin. 


Pearl P. Ingalls. 


H. C. Caldwell. 


H. C. Caldwell. 


G. W. Carter. 


M. B. Wayrnan. 


J. W. Noble. 


W. C. Drake. 
G. Duffleld. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 


J. W. Latham. 


LIEUT. COLONELS. 


O. H. P. Scott. 


C. C. Biser. 


QUARTERMASTERS. 


H. H. Trimble. 


J. W.Noble. 


Win. L. Orr. 


T. S. Wright. 


H. C. Caldwell. 


G. C. Mudsett. 


F. M. Wariord. 


Enos T. Cole. 


J. W. Noble. 


B. S. Jones. 


T. J. Maxwell. 


T. D. Johnson. 


G. Daffield. 
B S. Jones. 


J. C. McCrary. 
P. II. Walker. 


S. Whitten, 
J. D.Gray. 


Battalion, Adjutants. 


Battalion Quarter- 


C. A. Stanton. 
G. Curkendall. 


Commissary. 


R. L. Miller. 
J. Davenport. 


ly. E. Jones. 


ADJUTANTS. 


T. H. Brown. 


H. D'B. Cutler. 
G. Lowe. 


G. W. Newell. 


J. W. Noble. 






H. H. Hand. 


Glenn Lowe. 







FOURTH IOWA CAVALRY. 

The Fourth Iowa was one of the distinguished cavalry regiments 
of the West. It was fortunate in having a great part of its service 
under a splendid commander. The first colonel did not remain long with 
the regiment, and when the command passed into the hands of Edward F. 
Winslow, there commenced for the Fourth cavalry a record for valor, hard 
riding and brave fighting that was not surpassed by any body of horsemen 
in the West. Winslow commanded these brave men either as their colonel 
or as the leader of their brigade to the close of the war. Whatever com- 
mand Winslow might happen to have, this was his regiment. His history 
and its history are one. If the regiment gained honor, so did he; if Wins- 
low won a battle, the Fourth regiment was always at the front and helped 
wear the laurels. He was loved by his soldiers, and shared with them the 
hard march, the fierce encounter, or the last cracker. His brigade was a 
fighting brigade, and was as well-known among the cavalry of the West as 
was Crocker's Iowa brigade among the infantry. If a hard march were on 
hand, or a battle to be fought at the fiont, Winslow's men would be there. 

The young man who recruited a company of horsemen at Mt. Pleasant, 
Oskaloosa and Ottumwa* in 1861, came out of the war a brevet brigadier 
general, with the reputation of a good patriot, a brave soldier and a splendid 
cavalry commander; and his regiment shared his honors with him, for they 
had helped to win them with their own sabres. It was in November, 1861, that 
the regiment was mustered into the service at its rendezvous of Camp Harlan 
at Mt. Pleasant. It spent the winter there learning the art of war, and 
went to the front with the army of Curtis in Missouri, in March of 1862. 
That summer of 1862 was not a summer of glory for our regiment, though 
there was abundant hard marching, arduous reconnoitering with the usual 
proportion of skirmishes and running combats, with here and there a man 
shot dead, or half a dozen wounded. Often in detachments chasing the 
enemy, nearly always outnumbered, constantly at the front and the post of 
danger, their camps but bivouacs, surprises by day and night by guerrillas 
frightfully frequent, and the cry "to arms" a familiar sound— this was cav- 
alry life of the union army in Missouri and Arkansas in 1862. Battle's 
dangers and none of battle's glory. The Fourth cavalry experienced it all. 
That summer they made, with Curtis, the extraordinarily hard march from 



586 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

southwestern Missouri through Arkansas against Little Rock, and nearly to 
that capital, and thence to Helena on the Mississippi river. It was a march 
notorious for its hardships, and the barrenness of its results. A whole win- 
ter's rest catne to the regiment that winter, but a kind of rest more weari- 
some, and almost as dangerous as active campaigning in the field. Helena 
in Arkansas has a thousand times been voted by the union soldiers the most 
disagreeable and heaven-forsaken place in Dixie. A winter's stay there on hard 
guard and scouting duty, with wretched, murky weather, the hospitals 
crowded, the roads bottomless in mud, caused great discouragement and dis- 
content, and thinned the ranks rapidly. No chance for war's excitements, 
and the transports passing down the river daily bearing others to the front, 
and to the glory of victory; all this, made a winter in Helena anything but a 
soldier's rest. 

- The early May days of 1863 saw the Fourth Iowa cavalry taking a con- 
spicuous part in Grant's great campaign against Vicksburg. From Port 
Gibson to Jackson it was the advance guard, holding a post of honor in the 
front of Sherman's corps, while from Jackson to Vicksburg, it was the rear 
guard of the whole army, keeping back its pursuers. It was, until long 
after Vicksburg was invested, the only regiment of cavalry in this army, 
and was in a state of incessant activity, under the daily urgent calls for cav- 
alry service. A brilliant contrast to that winter at Helena! At last the 
regiment was doing work that would tell — work that even the humblest sol- 
dier in it could see the need of and the value of; and although for two 
months there was no day of rest or comfort, and almost no night undis- 
turbed, the men kept at it with untiring energy and perfect zeal— always on 
the outposts during the march and during the siege, and always scouting, 
reconnoitering, picketing, patrolling, raiding or foraging in the enemy's 
country. 

During the siege, the regiment, for the first time, received suitable car- 
bines, and entered bravely into all the maneuvers for keeping Pemberton in 
Vicksburg and Johnston out. Eighteen months of the regiment's history 
were gone— months of great hardships and scant honors. fJut now a new 
era had come. Maj. Winslow was made its colonel, and with his splendidly 
trained troopers soon marched to the music of great events. The regiment 
took part in the second Jackson campaign, and until the close of the year 
1863, engaged in numerous important expeditions and raids in Mississippi, 
notably the one from Vicksburg to Memphis, in August, in which great loss 
of property and army transportation was inflicted on the enemy. In Sep- 
tember, Winslow was appointed, by Gen. Sherman, chief of cavalry, and 
given command of the cavalry forces of the Fifteenth army corps, com- 
prising five regiments. 

February of 1864 saw the regiment on the Meridian campaign with Gen. 
Sherman. It was now a "veteran" command, the regiment having been 
the first to re-enlist from Iowa. 

Some of the hardest riding in that or any campaign was done by Com- 
pany F, which, on one occasion, under special orders from Gen. Sherman, 
did "its 80 miles in a single night, starting at 4 p. m. and stopping at 8 a. if. 
Enormous damage was done to railroads and property on this raid, and 
the cavalry skirmished with the enemy daily, for 150 miles. Winslow com- 
manded the cavalry forces of the Fifteenth army corps in this raid, and the 
regiment was back to Vicksburg by March 1st. 

During the Vicksburg siege, the regiment had more than one conflict 
with the Rebels at Grant's rear. On the 22d of June, a detachment of 115 
men under Maj. Parkell, who were dismounted and engaged in felling trees 
to obstruct a road, were suddenly charged from their rear by a body of some 
600 rebel cavalry, who had made a dash between them and their camp. The 
detachment got to their horses, all who could, and fought in desperation, 
but were quickly overpowered and routed, with a loss of more than a third 
of their number in killed, wounded and captured. The detachment from 
Company A succeeded in forming in time to resist the first charge, and did 



THE FOURTH CAVALRY. 587 

it at a cost of 8 men killed out of its 24. Lieut. Gardner of Company K 
was killed, and Lieut. McConnelley of Company 1 was captured. 

Immediately after the Meridian raid, the veterans of the regiment started 
home on furlough. 

In May, Lt.-Col. Peters led the regiment on a raid from Memphis in 
search of Forrest, and by June the disastrous expedition under Gen. Sturgis 
to Guntown was under way. In this movement, Winslow led a brigade of 
the Third and Fourth Iowa and Tenth Missouri cavalry. The one other 
brigade was led by Col. Waring, and Grierson commanded the cavalry col- 
umn. Gen. Sturgis was an officer of the regular army, but, as it turned out, 
was utterly incompetent to command in the field. At Guntown, the cavalry 
in advance met and engaged the enemy in overwhelming numbers, resisting 
two or three severe charges. The infantry was miles behind ; the day was 
tropically hot, but Sturgis, instead of ordering his cavalry to fall back and 
wait for help, ordered them to fight on and at the same time rushed Ins 
infantry through two miles of swamp and through five or ten miles of dusty 
roads and awful heat to the front. Many fell by the way, sunstruck or ex- 
hausted, and none were fit for battle on reaching the ground. Then came 
the blunder practiced by Banks at Pleasant Hill. Sturgis sent his 
enormous wagon train up to the front and put the miry, one-bridge stream 
behind him. He now ordered Winslow 1 s cavalry to fall back a little and 
wait for further ordei's, where, without permission to disturb the enemy's 
flanks, and not permitted to move, the cavalrymen could only look on and 
witness Sturgis hurl his exhausted infantry on to the fresh, strong column of 
the enemy, and see it beaten in detachments. Waring's brigade had been 
first repulsed by infantry and sent to the rear of the army. Instantly every- 
thing went to pieces — in utter confusion every man of the army, except 
Winslow's cavalry, started to the rear, many doggedly and sullenly, and 
others on the run. All was panic and utter rout. Batteries and trains 
were being lost, and Sturgis himself was flying from the field. At that 
moment a regiment of colored men flung themselves across the path of the 
pursuers and with naked bayonets saved their flying, white comrades from 
immediate destruction. Instantly at their side, too, fighting like them, were 
two regiments of cavalry. Without orders from any general officer, the Third 
and Fourth Iowa had again dismounted and formed on the run in line with 
other of these brave men. For a while the awful tide of the enemy was 
checked and the army got back over the stream. Still on toward Memphis 
went the great mob, pursued by the Rebels, its rear protected by Winslow's 
brigade of cavalry, fighting at every cross road and vantage point. At Rip- 
ley, by a severe struggle of Winslow's men, aided by some colored troops, 
the Rebels were again held in check, and at last, after a hundred miles dis- 
graceful retreat, Sturgis, with what was left of his 8,000 men, got back to 
Memphis. In all the dangers, hardships and conflicts of the retreat, Win- 
slow's two lowo, regiments had shown the valor of tried veterans. Without 
them, Sturgis and his army would have been destroyed or wholly captured. 
As it was, 2,000 men, 18 cannon, and a splendid train of 200 wagons, loaded 
with supplies, were sacrificed to the incompetency of the union commander. 

The thanks Winslow and his brave men got from Gen. Sturgis, were mis- 
representations of their course in the battle, and their conduct on the retreat. 
Officers of the command, however, were prompt to correct Sturgis's false 
accounts and to give to Winslow the honor he had justly earned — the honor 
of saving the army. A month later Winslow's men went out to fight Forrest 
again, but with a very different result. This time the battle was at Tupelo, 
and Gen. A. J. Smith, not Sturgis, was the leader. A brilliant union victory 
was won, and the Iowa cavalry there did its full measure of duty, and shared 
in the honors of the successful expedition. 

In September the rebel Gen. Price again attempted to snatch the state of 
Missouri out of the Union. Winslow's brigade and other troops at Mem- 
phis were sent against him. The cavalry crossed the Mississippi, September 
2d, marched to Little Rock to re-enforce Gen. Steele, and then with an in- 



588 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

fantry force under command of Gen. Mower to Cape Girardeau; then went 
by boats to St. Louis, from which city the cavalry marched out to Independ- 
ence by October 22, 1864, overtaking and attacking the enemy that evening. 
The very next day they fought the battle of the '• Big Blue " river, attacking 
and defeating the Rebels, driving them out on to an open prairie, charging 
and routing them completely. In this engagement the gallant Col. Wmslow 
was seriously wounded. Lt.-Col. Benteen of the Tenth Missouri cavalry took 
his place as commander of the brigade. Two days later the cavalry over- 
took the Rebels at the Marie des Cygnes river, when another victory was 
won, the Fourth and Third Iowa cavalry charging a rebel force having 
5,000 men in the front line. One thousand prisoners, including Generals 
Marmaduke and Cabell, were captured. Five cannon and several battle flags 
were among the trophies of the victory. Among the killed in the Fourth 
was Lieut. Curtis. Maj. Pierce, commanding, was severely wounded. 

For its gallantry in these engagements, Winslow's brigade received the 
highest commendation from Maj. Gen. Pleasonton. "They are glorious 
troops," said Pleasonton in general orders No. 11. 

The pursuit was continued on through Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian 
territory, the campaign being one of extraordinary marches and extreme 
hardships. In December, the worn out little army, its horses all crippled or 
dead, got back to St. Louis. It had marched in the campaign 2,000 miles — 
in bad weather often, had never had a tent, and was often without food for 
man or beast days at a time, suffering also terribly from the bitter cold 
of the Ozark and Boston Mountains, where there was no town or village and 
few inhabitants. In December, the command went to Louisville, where it 
was freshly equipped for some great service. Col. Winslow, partially recov- 
ered from his wound, was again at the front in command of his fine brigade, 
and with a well earned star on his shoulder. March found the brigade con- 
centrating with other troops at Eastport, Mississippi, preparing for Wil- 
son's great raid to Selma, Columbus and Macon. The brigade was assigned 
to the division of Gen. Upton, an officer of great experience and successful 
history, and a man greatly regarded by his troops. The grand raid was to 
be made into the last ditch of the Confederacy, past the interior lines, past 
the great arsenals and feeding depots of the South, through districts and 
cities that had been deemed secure and that had never seen a Yankee sol- 
dier. Splendid commanders, with 13,000 picked horsemen, were selected for 
the purpose and armed with repeating carbines. It was a force trained to 
light as cavalry or as infantry — on horseback or on foot. It could ride by 
night a hundred miles, carrying the besom of destruction into remote and 
unexpected places, or it could dismount, leave its horses behind and storm 
the strongest works in rebeldom. No such equipped cavalry force, no force 
so ready for battle, so competent to surprise and destroy armies and towns in 
distant places, is spoken of in history. In that raid, that army did all its 
equipment gave promise of doing, and with it, at its very front, sharing in 
every heroic deed, rode four regiments from Iowa — the Third, Fourth, Fifth 
and Eighth cavalry. One of Iowa's men — Winslow — led one of the dashing 
brigades. Space will not permit dwelling on the details of that wonderful 
cavalry march — the daily adventures, the skirmishes, the captures of towns, 
the driving from the field of the best rebel cavalry in the South, the defeat 
of bodies of infantry, the surprises of camps, the great destruction of mills 
and railroads and millions of munitions of war. Some of these details have 
already been given in the sketches of other regiments, and the daily exper- 
iences of one of those Iowa regiments in that campaign, were the experiences 
of all. 

March 21, 1865, the raiding column moved, a single brigade going south- 
west toward Tuscaloosa, and the miin force south toward Selma. On the 
1st of April, having had heavy skirmishing for a day or two before, was 
fought the brisk battle of Ebenezer Church, where Captains Arnica, Brown, 
and Clark of the Third cavalry, behaved very gallantly, and Lieut. Veatch was 
wounded. Sergt. John Wall was mentioned for heroism. April 2d, at 2 



THE FOUBTH CAVALRY. 5S9 

o'clock, found the command surrounding the city of Selma preparing to 
storm its fortifications. As soon as the rebel works on the right of the union 
line were broken, the Fourth cavalry dashed at a gallop down the Planters- 
ville road on the left and charged into the city, creating confusion in every 
direction, while a small portion of the regiment, under Maj. W. W. 
Woods, had entered the works at another point on the extreme left, aiding 
their comrades in securing 1,000 prisoners and 5 guns. Capt. Eugene R. 
Jones of Company I, and the chief bugler, Daniel J. Taber, of the Fourth, 
were both killed in the engagement. Gen. Winslow was put in command 
of the city whde the destruction of property was going on, and while a part 
of his brigade, under Col. Noble, were raiding and covering the movement 
of the delayed supply trains in the neighborhood. The trophies of war 
were immense: 70 siege guns, '35 field guns, vast stores of ammunition, a 
splendid arsenal and 3,000 prisoners who were put in the same pen from 
which union prisoners had been hurried in the morning. 

Montgomery fell almost without a blow. It was four years to a day since 
Sumter was fired on when the Stars and Stripes of an Iowa regiment were 
run up on the State House at Montgomery, the first capital of Rebeldom. 

By the 16th of April, the union riders were in front of Columbus, on the 
Chattahoochee river. The city had splendid fortifications, a river at its 
front, and, beyond that, strong works mounted with 24 cannon. Gen. Howell 
Cobb, Buchanan's cabinet minister, with 3000 men, defended the works west 
of the river. A part of Upton's division dismounted and prepared to assault 
the enemy's right, while Winslow's brigade rode round to their extreme left 
for a night attack there. The Third Iowa was in front, dismounted, with 
the Fourth Iowa in their rear, one battalion mounted and two on foot. 
When darkness came, the order, "charge," was given, and, guided only by the 
flashes of the enemy's guns, a part of the Third Iowa stormed over the 
rebel works. Then the Fourth Iowa dashed in, swarming over the forts 
inside the outer line, and in the darkness took the long covered bridge and 
the battery beyond, they securing the road straight into the city. That bridge 
taken, Columbus was lost. At the capture of the bridge a strange incident 
occurred. The Rebels knew that its possession was vital to them. Hence 
they placed a battery of loaded howitzers at the end next the city, trained to 
sweep the roadways through the bridge, and they had filled the bridge with 
combustibles ready for firing. A part of the Fourth cavalry, under the 
personal direction of Upton and Winslow, dashed into the impenetrable 
darkness of this covered bridge, found it full of men, but mistaking them 
for their comrades of another regiment, crowded past and sprang upon 
the howitzers and the enemy at the farther end. Some of the men at 
the guns were shot down, others were captured, and then the boys in 
blue discovered that the bridge behind them was full of Rebels. They had 
simply run through them in the darkness* and now, as they came out, dis- 
armed them. It was one of the very last incidents of the war. 

Columbus had fallen, and with it Wilson again captured enormous war 
stores, including 24 cannon, the arsenal, gunboats, etc., together with 1,500 
prisoners. The Fourth Iowa took 12 cannon, 7 battle-flags, and nearly 1,000 
prisoners. In that short campaign, now about to end, as the loss of Colum- 
bus involved the loss of Macon, Winslow's gallant brigade, with its two 
Iowa regiments and Tenth Missouri, had taken 3,100 prisoners, including 200 
officers, 11 stands of colors, 33 guns, and 3,500 stands of arms. Few, if any 
brigades in all the union army, can show so proud a record. Gen. Winslow 
recommended for promotion, on account of special gallantly, the names of 
Captains John D. Brown, George W. Johnson, S. J. McKee of the Third 
regiment, and Lot Abraham, Asa B. Fitch, and Lieut. Lloyd H. Dillon. 
Capt. McKee was the first officer to enter the lines at Columbus, and Lieut. 
Dillon killed several Rebels personally with his pistol and sabre at Selma, 
and was among the first over the bridge at Columbus. 

After some garrison duty near Atlanta, and some chasing over Georgia in 
search of the flying head of the Confederacy, the Fourth Iowa cavalry was 



590 



IOWA IN AVAR TIMES. 



mustered out August 10th, at Atlanta, Georgia, carrying home with it a 
name and a fame of which not only its members, but all Iowa, was proud. 

The gallant fight at Columbus had been the last one of any consequence 
in the war, and was a week after Lee's surrender. The sudden attack by 
night was suggested to Gen.'Wilson by Winslow, and the prompt and dar- 
ing conduct of the two Iowa regiments saved us the bridge, and the conse- 
quent capture of the city. The movement had been so sudden and so com- 
plete on the part of Winslow's men that the other brigade of the division, 
though first on the ground and in position, had not time to join in the attack. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. 



COLONELS. 


MAJORS. 


SURGEONS. 


CHAPLAIN. 


Asbury Porter. 


S. D. Swan. 


A. W. McClure. 


A. J. Kirkpatrick. 


Edward F. Winslow. 


J. E. Jewett. 


W. Robinson. 




LIEUT. COLONELS. 


George A. Stone. 
Benjamin Rector. 


Battalion Adjutants. 


S'. P. Lauffer. 


T. Drummond. 


A. B. Parkell. 


W. Beckwith. 


J. M. Rust. 


S. D. Swan. 


Edward F. Winslow. 


W. B. Porter. 


E. W. Raymond. 


John H. Peters. 


C. F. Spearman. 


S. F. Cooper. 


C. Musser. 


ASST. SURGEONS. 

W. Bird. 


John H. Peters. 
A. R. Pierce. 
W. W. Woods. 


W. P. Brazelton. 
Commissaries. 


Battalion Quarter- 
maste?s. 


R. T. Taylor. 


Ed. W. Dee. 


W. T. Allen. 


J. M. Rust. 


D. Stewart. 




Seth Martin. 


W. P. Brazelton. 


W. Robinson. 






I. F. Phillips. 


W. McK. Findley. 


a. W. Waldron. 




J. Guylee. 


S. Curnrnings. 


E. D. Ketcham. 




J. Hart. 


C. Fitch. 


A. Hodge. 




E. A. Haskell. 


S. W. Taylor. 


W. F. Scott. 




J. H. Patterson. 



FIFTH IOWA CAVALRY. 

The Fifth cavalry was composed of companies from different states, and 
can scarcely be called an Iowa regiment. It was orgmally known as the 
"Curtis Horse," organized by order of Gen. Fremont. Before the close of the 
war there was consolidated with it two companies of the Fifth Iowa infantry, 
the fragments that were left of that regiment after a glorious career. Nebraska, 
Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri all had companies in the regiment, and its 
colonel, W. W. Lowe, was a captain of the regular army. The first part of 
the career of this command was more arduous than glorious. Troops kept in 
garrison or guarding lines, and making petty raids, have little opportunity 
to win renown, spite of hard work and hard riding. This was the fate of 
the Fifth. It did not get to the front at all till near the spring of 1862, 
and, even then, was kept for a whole year in the neighborhood of Forts 
Henry and Heiman, Tennessee. Much guard duty, much reconnoitering 
and considerable scouting was done that spring and summer of 1863. In 
one of the forays made in May by a part of the command, to the little town 
of Paris, it was surprised, and Maj. Boernstein, commanding it, killed. 
Half the men present were killed, wounded or captured; among the wounded 
were Captains Haw and Van Minden; these and Lieut. Van Vredenberg 
were also captured. The disaster created a sad feeling in the regiment, for 
the major had been a popular and competent officer, and the wounded and 
captured were among the best of the command. Col. Lowe, learning of the 
affair, started in all haste to the relief of his men, but was recalled before 
reaching Paris. 

In June, the regiment, by order, gave up its title of the " Curtis Horse," 
and, from then on, was designated as the Fifth Iowa cavalry. Late the fol- 
lowing August, Fort Donelson was attacked by 800 rebel cavalry and infan- 
try, and the commander of the garrison telegraphed Col. Lowe to come to 



THE FIFTH CAVALRY.' 591 

his rescue, but succeeded in repulsing the assault before the Fifth cav- 
alry could possibly reach there. Gol. Lowe pursued the defeated Rebels and 
had a spirited fight with thein at Cumberland Iron Works. In this fight 
Lieut. Summers was killed, and Lieut. McKneely was wounded, as were a 
number of the men. some mortally. Summers fought a number of Rebels 
single handed, and was shot and bayoneted eight times before they overpow- 
ered him. 

The autumn was spent at Fort Heiman, with here and there a serious 
scout or raid. In one of these raids resulting in fighting, Lieut. Gallagher 
was killed. It was at Garrettsburg, Kentucky. The enemy lost in the affair 
nearly 100 men. The Fifth regiment had been commanded by Lt.-Col. 
Patrick. In another scouting affair Capt. Minden with a number of the 
regiment was captured. This was at Cumberland Iron Works. All the 
spring and early summer of I860, the regiment spent in garrisoning Fort 
Donelson, and scouting in the neighborhood. The midsummer found the 
command transferred to Murfreesboro, where it became a part of the force 
under Gen. Rosecrans. All that autumn the men rode up and down Tennes- 
see chasing and capturing guerrillas. On the 9tli of October, at Sugar 
Creek, the command rushed on to a retreating column of Wheeler's and 
charged it with such impetuosity as to kill 30 of the Rebels, wound as many 
more, and capture 100. 

Other chases of flying Rebels followed, in all directions, the Fifth cavalry 
occasionally dashing along at the rate of 70 miles a day. The regiment 
then went into camp at Maysville. It was while here that Maj. J. M. 
Young of the Fifth Iowa took a picked force of 400 men and in a rapid 
movement dashed to the Tennessee river above Decatur, captured a lot of 
rebel ferry boats, and cleared the river of Rebels and guerrillas for many 
miles. It was a bold ride, and the major received the official thanks of the 
department commander. Sergeant Phillips of the Fifth regiment signalized 
himself by special gallantry during the expedition by crossing the river in 
the face of an enemy. A little later, Sergeants P. JV1 . McGuire and W. Ireland, 
and Private George Ireland, also distinguished themselves for bravery. 
They were sent to Point Rock as dispatch bearers, but a band of guerrillas 
captured them on the way. By great presence of mind the dispatches were 
saved, and, waiting a favorable moment, the captives slew their guards and 
escaped. New Year, 1864, the regiment had re-enlisted, and shortly went 
home on furlough. The rest was needed, as all the early winter had been a 
time of hard riding, reconnoitering and scouts. 

The early spring saw the men again in the saddle. On the 10th of July, 
they prepared to enter on the famous Rousseau raid. This was a grand ride 
from Decatur, Alabama, through to West Point and thence up to Sherman's 
army near Atlanta. Gen. Rousseau had only 8,000 men, but they were all 
hard riders. Lt.-Col. Patrick of the Fifth Iowa led the Second brigade, and 
Maj. Baird commanded the regiment. Col. Lowe by this time had higher 
commands and was not with the expedition. The raid was a great success 
and resulted in the destruction of immense amounts of rebel war material, 
bridges, iron works, railroads, etc. Only once did the column meet the 
enemy in real force, and then the Rebels were beaten with a loss of 30 killed 
and many wounded. In the early part of the raid Capt. Curl was fired on 
by bushwhackers and killed, and Capt. Wilcox was severely wounded. The 
raiding column reached Sherman's lines on the 22d of July. After a little 
rest the regiment took part in Gen. McCook's unfortunate raid to the Macon 
railroad. It fought well, but its losses were severe, 120 being killed, 
wounded or missing. Among the first was Lieut. A. Guler, and Lieut. Hays 
was taken prisoner. In all the severe operations about Atlanta, whether on 
horse or on foot, the Fifth Iowa cavalry did its hard and varied duties 
nobly — in fact very nearly used itself up as a body of cavalry. Its horses were 
all done for, and the men, dismounted, fought in the trenches. On the 1st of 
September its numbers were increased by the addition of two companies of the 
Fifth Iowa infantry. Maj. Harlan Beard shortly became lieutenant colonel 



592 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

of the regiment, and the command in the meantime had been sent to Louis- 
ville for rest and remounting'. 

By the end of November the Fifth Iowa cavalry, as good and fresh as new, 
and armed with Spencer carbines, was again at the front disputing the 
march of Hood's army into Tennessee. Their first important conflict was 
at Duck river, on the 28th of November. The brigade to which the Fifth 
Iowa was attached was, on that day, guarding the fords of the river against 
a column of rebel cavalry under Forrest. They skirmished much during the 
day at the fords, but when darkness came on they discovered that Forrest 
had crossed at another point and was bivouacked right in their rear. They 
were penned up in a bend of the river. There was great excitement at the 
discovery and the commander of the brigade could not be found. The situ- 
ation was critical. Maj. Young of the Fifth Iowa instantly assumed com- 
mand of the whole and yelled to his men to follow him and cut their way 
out. With a dash they went through Forrest's lines like a herd of mad 
buffaloes and escaped. Their loss was but 15 men, and when the gallant 
major brought the command into camp that night he was greatly compli- 
mented by Gen. Wilson. The regiment now fell back with the army to 
Nashville, and when the great battle before that city was fought, the Fifth 
cavalry took part at the extreme right, though it suffered little except in the 
death of Lieut. John W. Watson, who was killed by the first shot fired. In 
the pursuit of Hood, which so very nearly annihilated his whole army, the 
Fifth Iowa was very active, repeatedly overtaking and engaging his cavalry, 
and with loss. The close of the year found the regiment encamped on Eik 
river, resting and preparing for the great raid under Wilson to Selma and 
Macon. This successful campaign has already been described in the sketches 
of the Third and Fourth cavalry. It is enough to say that in all that wonder- 
ful raid the Fifth cavalry was always at the iront. Maj. Young had now 
become a colonel and was in command of the regiment in its dashing rides. 
Just after the raid commenced, it was at the close of March, the regiment, 
while resting near the Little Cahawba river, was suddenly surprised by a 
force of Rebels three times its own number. Col. Young and his brave 
men were again equal to the situation, and with drawn sabres they 
approached the rebel line to within pistol shot, when at the command 
"charge" they swept down on the enemy like a whirlwind, driving him 
from the field in utter confusion. 

April 1st, the hurrying riders ran into the right wing of Forrest's com- 
mand, posted behind barricades and in strong position. It was near to 
Ebenezer Church, and Forrest had artillery. The Fifth Iowa and thfe Seventh 
Ohio were dismounted and charged the rebel line fiercely and drove it. 
In pursuing, they inadvertently ran by a portion of it and were fired 
into in the rear with artillery and musketry. A little confusion ensued, but 
rallying again the First Ohio and the Fifth Iowa recharged and Forrest was 
completely routed and his guns captured. Selma was taken the next day 
and all its enormous stores and munitions of war given to the flames. By 
the 12th of April, Wilson's command was in Montgomery and two days 
later saw it making a night assault on Columbus. In the attack on 
Columbus Gen. Winslow's brigade did the hard fighting and won just 
renown. A few days more saw the great raiding army at Macon, and the 
war over. The Fifth Iowa joined in the search through Georgia for Jeffer- 
son Davis, then flying for his life, deserting the people whom he had led into 
treason and disaster. He was captured, and a company of the Fifth Iowa 
cavalry guarded him from Atlanta to Augusta. On his way back from 
Augusta, Col. Young captured the assets of the Bank of Tennessee, amount- 
ing to $S, 000,000 of federal money; a million of it in silver and gold. Early 
in August the brave regiment, after years of hardship, heroic battling and 
faithful service of its country, went home and was mustered out at Clinton, 
Iowa. " Braver soldiers than the Fifth Iowa cavalry," says Gen. Alexander, 
who commanded their brigade, "never drew sabre." 






THE EIGHTH CAVALRY. 593 

Field and Staff Officers of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry. 

Colonels — Wm. W. Lowe, John M. Young. 

Lieutenant Colonels— H. T. Patrick, Harlan Baird, E. G. McNeely. 

Majors — Carl 8. Bernstine, Wm. Kelsay, A. B. Brackett, Harlan Baird, John M. 
Young, J. C. Wilcox, Charles A. B. Langdon, J. M. Limbocker, W. O. McBeath. 

Surgeons— Enos Lowe, B. T. Wise. 

Assistant Surgeons— O. Ruttan, B. T. Wise, J. M. Kerlin, B. Y. Shelley. Geo. S. 
Dewitt, T. F. Lewis. 

Adjutants — Wm. B. McG-eorge, Wm. Aston, Frank Noble. 

Battalion Adjutants— W. Astor, G-. B. Edwards, N. Bass. 

Quartermasters— 3. N. H. Patrick, T. M. McNeely, David Musser. 

Commissaries— S. M. West, J. B. Towers. 

Battalion Quartermasters— 3 . Berlin, R. Van Vredenburg, 0. B. Smith. 

Chaplains — J. Spillman, Ziba Brown. 



EIGHTH IOWA CAVALRY. 

The Eighth Cavalry saw little of real war until the spring; of 1864. 
Then it started with Sherman in the celebrated campaign for Atlanta. The 
regiment had been organized late in the previous autumn at Davenport. 
It left Iowa in the middle of October, and by the middle of November was 
stationed at Waverly and other points west of Nashvdle, Tennessee, where 
it remained on guard and garrison duty all the winter, with little opportu- 
nity for showing the pluck of its soldiers, and nd chance at all for distinc- 
tion. There was some little scouting and reconnoitering during the winter, 
but the tame routine of watching railroads, in a district filled with guerrillas 
and disloyal people, though it had its uses, brought with it no glory. 

Joseph B. Dorr was colonel of the regiment. He was a war Democrat, an 
able man, had been editor of the Dubuque Herald till 1860 — and in 1861 
went into the army as quartermaster of the Iowa Twelfth. He fought in 
the line at Shiloh, and was complimented in orders. Col. Dorr was a good 
man and a true patriot, who, later, laid his life down on the altar of his 
country. During that tedious winter of 1863-64, in Tennessee, his duties 
were largely of an administrative character, keeping control of a people 
about him, who, though openly professing loyalty and peace, were secretly 
traitors aud practicing murder. While the Eighth Iowa officers and the 
companies were galloping about the district, clay and night, picking up rob- 
bers and guerrillas, Dorr was devising means to pacify his district and 
keep order. He succeeded, and tolerable quiet in that district took the place 
of anarchy. For that, the people could thank Dorr and the Eighth Iowa cav- 
alry. May-day, 1864, brought on the new campaign. The Eighth Iowa was 
made a part of the First brigade, led by Col. Dorr, of McCook's division of cav- 
alry. Lt.-Col. Barner led the regiment. In all that arduous campaign, for a 
hundred days the Eighth Iowa was constantly at the front. Every day saw 
its skirmish or battle, every night its surprise or alarm. It was constant, 
hard duty, with brave men falling singly or in couples all through the 
woods, and all the way from Cleveland to Atlanta. Incidents worthy of 
record occurred constantly. On the 9th of May, Corporals Sharp and Pease 
distinguished themselves in a skirmish, and at Cassville Maj. Root, Capt. 
Hoxie and Lieut. McCurran won high commendation for bravery in a gal- 
lant charge. In le^s than a week, at Burnt Hickory, another gallant charge 
was made, where Capt. M. M. Walden proved himself a hero. The very 
next day Lieut. C. F. Anderson charged his men on to a rebel battery and 
held it in a critical and hazardous position until ordered to retire. When 
the Rebels, after weeks of constant skirmishing and battles, at last fell back 
behind the Chattahoochee, the Eighth Iowa cavalry was the first troop 
across the river after them. So the fighting and the skirmishing went on 
around Atlanta, and then, on July 27th, came that luckless raid of Gen. 
McCook's to Lovejoy and the Macon railroad. 

In this expedition Col. Dorr led his own regiment, then not over 300 all 
told, and Col. Croxton led the brigade. The enemy's railroads were 

I. W. T.— 38 



594 IOWA II* WAR TIMES. 

reached as proposed, and great damage done in the face of numbers too 
weak to successfully resist. The destruction of miles of the road complete, 
Gen. McCook started on the return, but to his amazement, shortly found a 
heavy body of cavalry across his path. Col. Dorr was ordered to charge 
this force, and he did it nobly, driving- the front lines, but receiving from 
those in the rear an appalling fire that mowed his men down, said he, 
"like grass before the scythe." 

Adjt. Horton and Lieut. Cobb, with many of the men, were killed. Col. 
Dorr himself was wounded. All that night, through swamps and dark 
woods, the command floundered along, trying to get back to the union lines. 
The next day, near Newman, it ran on to another rebel force, 8,000 strong, 
in its way. After considerable fighting, during which no headway was 
made, and after Col. Dorr had tor some time remained and held the rear, 
now the post of danger, while McCook should try to escape with the 
remainder of the command, the end came. The regiment was lost; only a 
few escaped through the woods to tell how heroically the command had tried 
to save itself. Lieut. John .B. Loomis and Sergt. Mitchell were killed. 
Maj. Shurtz and Lieut. J. T. Haight were among the wounded. Col. Dorr 
mentioned the following officers by name, as having behaved with gallantry 
in the battle: Maj. Isett, Captains Morhiser, Moore, Doane and Shutz, 
Lieutenants Moreland, McCanon, Loomis, Belfield, Bennett, Pritchard, And- 
erson, Morrow, Ogle, Detwiler and Haight, and Orderly-Sergeant John H. 
Huff, and Dr. J. H. Warren. The late autumn found Col. Dorr exchanged, 
and, with his regiment, again ready for battle against Gen. Hood, who was 
now invading Tennessee. It was engaged some near Franklin, but quietly 
fell back with the main army to take a not unimportant part in the great 
battle and victory of Nashville. Maj. Root and Capt. Evans led squadrons 
in a charge on the first day of the battle, and in the rapid pursuit of Hood, 
in which the whole rebel army was nearly annihilated, the Eighth cavalry 
did its full share of hard riding. " During the year 1864," says Col. Dorr, 
" the regiment has taken part in fifteen engagements, not counting skirm- 
ishes. The casualties, not counting the prisoners taken in the raid on the 
Macon railroad, number 168." 

Late in March of 1865, the Eighth Iowa was at Chickasaw, Alabama, 
armed with splendid Spencer carbines, and eager to join the other Iowa cav- 
alry there, in the grandest raid of the war. It was the march on Selma, of 
Wilson's picked cavalry, 13,000 strong, the best armed and best mounted 
men of the West; a march and a raid surpassing in importance any cav- 
alry movement of modern times. In its picturesqueness, adventure and 
results, it was scarcely second to the " March to the Sea" itself. The story 
of the march of Wilson's main column to Selma, Columbus and Macon, has 
been told in the sketches of the Third and Fourth cavalry regiments. The 
Eighth cavalry, led by Col. Dorr and in Croxton's brigade, marched with 
Wilson as far as Elyton, and there Croxton was sent off with his brigade to 
capture Tuscaloosa, while Wilson went on with the main column to Selma. 
Croxton started on his great ride March 30th, and by dextrous generalship 
and forced marching, rode round the enemy in his front, captured Tusca- 
loosa, and wandered for a month, unheard of by the North, or by Wilson, 
in the interior of Alabama and Georgia. His column, though a desperately 
active one, was a lost command. Its wanderings during these unique weeks 
of its history were not less arduous than romantic. It was the old story of 
dashing up and down the interior of an enemy's country, swimming streams, 
fighting at cross-roads, destroying railroads, and burning supplies. Many 
villages and towns were taken, among them Talladega, where on April 2'2d, 
Lieut. Crawford made a charge with Company L. On May-day, the column 
reached Macon, and joined Gen. Wilson, who had regarded it as lost. 

At Macon, Col. Dorr suddenly died, lamented by his whole command and 
by a great circle of warm friends in Iowa. His exposures and hardships 
during the raid brought on neuralgic rheumatism and a congestive chill. He 
lived however to hear the news of the fall of Richmond and the close of the war. 



THE SIXTH, SEVENTH AtfD NINTH CAVALRY. 595 

To a heart as true and patriotic as his the knowledge that his flag again floated 
everywhere supreme must have softened the sting of death. His body was 
embalmed and sent to his home in loyal Iowa, escorted by some of his tried 
comrades of the march. Col. Dorr, it is said, was the first officer to suggest 
to our government the idea of throwing large bodies of cavalry into the 
interior of the Confederacy. The wonderful success of Gen. Wilson's raid 
proved how correct was his military judgment. Had his suggestions been 
complied with at an earlier date, the country might have been spared two 
years of bloodshed. Croxton's raid was the last military movement in the 
Southwest. The war was done. Under the command of Lt.-Col. Barner, 
who was soon made colonel, the regiment remained in Georgia for a few 
weeks, helping to settle the new order of things following the proclamation 
of peace. On the 13th of August, it was mustered out at Macon and 
started for Iowa, its honorable and patriotic career complete. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Eighth Ioiva Cavalry. 

Colonels— 3. B. Dorr, H. G. Barner. 
Lieutenant Colonel— H. G. Barner. 

Majors— J. 3. Brown. J. D. Thompson. A. J. Price, K. Koot, J. H. Isett, E. Shurtz, J. W. 
Moore, 3. Dance, G. W. Burns. 
Adjutants— J. H. Isett, H. H. Belfield. 
Quartermasters — J. Q. A. Dawson, O. Bennett. 

/Surgeons— W. H. Finley, A. 8. Carnahan, D. A. Hoffman, D. H. Warren. 
Assistant Surgeons— A. S. Carnahan, D. H. Warren, J. F. Smith. 
Chaplain— T. C. Clark. 
Commissary— 3. E. Pritchard. 



SIXTH, SEVENTH AND NINTH IOWA CAVALRY. 

Iowa had three additional cavalry regiments, the Sixth, Seventh and Ninth. 
The two former took no part in the war proper, as they were sent west to watch 
the Indians who were threatening the border. The Ninth cavalry entered the 
service very late, and was stationed in Arkansas, where it remained till the war 
ended without seeing a battle. This regiment, nearly 1,200 strong, was in 
fact one of the finest commands in the union service. Its leader, Col. M. M. 
Trumbull, like very many of its officers and men, had been long in the service 
with some of the hard fighting regiments. It was fated to spend its days, 
however, in scouting, in garrison duty, in much hard marching, and in ways 
that, while arduous and useful, bring little distinction. John P. Knight 
was lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Edgar T. Ensign, Willis Drum- 
mond. Win. Haddock, John Wayne, and John L. Young were majors. 
Col. Drummond was brevetted brigadier general in March, 1865. During 
the whole service of the regiment its headquarters were at Duvall's Bluff, 
at Little flock, or its immediate neighborhood. The position was a base for 
supplies for Steele's army, and was consequently very important. From this 
base, in all sorts of miserable weather, over the worst roads on the continent, 
and often through miles and miles of almost bottomless swamps, the Ninth 
calvary was forever making scouts and little raids. To every point of the 
compass from Little Rock, by day or by night, the command would be 
hurried off on some fruitless expedition, some chase after rebel bands thathad 
just departed, or to protect some point that had just been abandoned. Time 
and again and weeks at a time the regiment would be divided and detach- 
ments sent hither and thither, until Arkansas with its malarious swamps and 
hideous scenery was as hated by the men as the Rebels themselves. 

It was a pity that this great, fine regiment of veteran soldiers and com- 
petent officers, should have to spend its energies in ways that produced so 
little of result. Maj. Edgar T. Ensign, a most competent officer of the regi- 
ment, one who was constantly in command of some expeditions or scouts, 
and, later, brevetted colonel, sent a detailed sketch to the adjutant general 
of Iowa of the regiment's movements. These movements were so monot- 



596 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

onoas, however, so barren in results, from the endless scouts and marches, 
as not to be sufficiently interesting in their history to repeat. The command 
did the duty that lay before it, and did it well; more than this can be said 
of no regiment. 

Field and Staff Officers of the Ninth Iowa Cavalry. 

Colonel— -M. M. Trumbull. 

Lieutenant Colonel— 3. P. Knight. 

Majors— E. T. Ensign, W. Drummond, W. Haddock, J. Wayne, J. L. Young. 

Adjutants— J. Wayne, W. B. Sherman, L. C. Massie. 

Surgeons — J. Wasson, J. Bell. 

Assistant Surgeons— E. Kirkup, J. Bell, J. A. Ward. 

Quartermasters— J '. J. Grant, B. F. Cheney. 

Commissaries — W. B. Sherman, G. W. Tilford. 

Chaplain — J. W. Larimore. 

The Sixth cavalry and the Seventh cavalry, as already stated, served during 
their term of enlistment, in the war against the Indians, the history of which 
does not properly belong here. Suffice it, that their record in the field brought 
no discredit to the fair fame of Iowa soldiers. They had hai-d marches, far 
away from the comforts or advantages of civilization; they fought barbarous 
foes, and usually in overwhelming numbers, and were always victorious. 
Some of them marched three thousand to five thousand miles, and scouts 
and petty fights were weekly occurrences. The regiments were nearly 
always more or less divided, garrisoning different posts, scouting and march- 
ing in different directions, making a succinct history of their arduous services 
almost impossible. They were led by good and brave officers, and their ser- 
vices were of as much value to the country in beating back savages as were 
the services of other regiments in tramping out Rebels. One was not more 
dangerous to the country than the other, and the character of warfare prac- 
ticed on the western plains required a degree of endurance, personal brav- 
ery and heroism, not excelled on the bloodiest battle fields of the South. The 
deeds and the battles of these regiments contesting with the Indians, are 
related in the official reports of Generals Pope and Sully, published by the 
adjutant general's office of the state. 

The principal officers in the Sixth cavalry were Colonels David S. Wilson 
and Sam'l M. Pollock, Lt.-Col. Ed. P. Ten Broeck, Majors Thos. H. Shep- 
hard, Albert E. House, John Galligan and D. W. C. Cram. 

In the Seventh cavalry, Samuel W. Summers was first colonel, and next 
Herman H. Heath. Heath, at the close of the war, was brevetted brigadier 
general. John Pattee was lieutenant-colonel. The majors were G. M. 
O'Brien, later brevetted colonel and brigadier general, John S. Wood and 
Jas. B. David. 

FIRST IOWA BATTERY. 

This battery was raised in Julyand August, 1861, at Burlington, Iowa, 
by Capt. C. H. Fletcher, and remained in that city until the December fol- 
lowing, when it was ordered to and arrived at Benton Barracks, near St. Louis, 
Missouri, where it received its armament of four 6-pounder guns and two 
12-pounder howitzers, the battery numbering 141 men. Capt. Fletcher 
being ordered to return to his regiment was relieved from further duty with 
the battery. It went by railroad to Rolla, Missouri, and marched, with 
the army commanded by Gen. Curtis, on the 23d of January, 1862, under 
command of Senior First Lieut. V. J. David, to Cross Hollow, Arkansas, 
where Second Lieut. J. A. Jones received his commission as captain, and 
assumed command of the battery. At the battle of Pea Ridge it did good 
service, fired the first shot, and suffered severely in men and horses, and had 
two caissons blown up, but through the gallantry of the men all the pieces 
were saved from capture, and continued to fire through both days of the bat- 
He. Capt. Jones and First Lieut. 0. W. Gambell were wounded, the latter 



THE FIRST BATTERY. 597 

very severely. The battery was honorably mentioned by brigade, division 
and army commanders. 

In May, 1862, H. H. Griffiths was commissioned captain, and assumed 
command in June, 1862; marched to Helena, Arkansas, arriving in July, 
after a march of the greatest hardship to the entire army. 

On the 22d of December, 1862, it formed a part of Gen. Steele's division, 
and took part in the action of Chickasaw Bayou, on the 28th and 29th of 
December, being repulsed. On the 11th of January following, it par- 
ticipated in the attack upon and capture of Arkansas Post, and did good 
service, and was presented with two fine captured Parrott guns by special 
order of Maj. Gen. McOlernand. 

It then went down the Mississippi river to Sherman's Landing, opposite 
Vicksburg, and debarked, after being thirty-five days on the transports, in 
midwinter, where man and beast were cooped up without any proper oppor- 
tunity to be anything else but supremely miserable. " I (says Capt. H. H. 
Griffiths) look upon this whole campaign as the hardest and most trying, in 
many respects, we had as yet endured. The transports proved to be perfect 
pest-houses ; the small-pox broke out, and the battery had, at one time, 
35 men sick with this painful and loathsome disease. 

"At 1 o'clock on the morning of May 1st, while marching in the darkness, 
toward Post Gibson, we encountered, suddenly and at short range, a heavy 
artillery fire from the Rebels, posted on the road ahd enfilading it. The 
occasion was a trying one, but the battery responded, and got rapidly in posi- 
tion, and soon silenced the rebel fire, maintained its first position, advanced 
during that eventful day, participated in all the fighting, and materially 
aided in gaining the victory. 

"We opened the ball on the enemy's line at Vicksburg, on the afternoon of 
May 18, 1863, and continued in position throughout the siege, firing over 
1.300 rounds to the gun during that memorable siege and capture of the 
rebel stronghold. On the night of July 5th we started for Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, and took part in the second capture of that place. 

" On September 22d, we marched to Vicksburg, took transports to Memphis, 
railroad to Corinth, and marched to Tuscumbia. On the 4th of November we 
crossed the Tennessee river, and marched by a circuitous route of near 400 
miles through a mountainous country to Chattanooga. On the morning of 
November 25th we opened fire on Lookout Mountain, under the immediate 
•eye of Maj. Gen. Jo. Hooker, and took part in the next day's fight at Mis- 
sionary Ridge. 

" Lieutenants Gay, Curtis, Ijams and Parks, and Sergeants Leebert, 
Anthrouhus and Fitkin, together with Corporals Olney, Gardner, Black and 
L. J. White were all complimented for good conduct. 

" On the 29th of April, 1864, the battery received its new armament of six 
10-pounder Parrott guns. At this time the battery was in fine condition, 
everything being new. We were justly proud of its appearance, waiting 
only to be tried to test its worth. The time for trial soon came. 

" On the 13th, we left Snake Gap and moved forward on Resaca, where we 
found the enemy strongly posted. The armies soon became engaged and 
about 4 o'clock p. M. the battery went into action, taking position in an 
open field in front of two rebel batteries. Our firing was very accurate and 
deadly, soon forcing the rebel batteries into silence. The battle continued 
on the 14th, and we were engaged most of the day, doing good execution. 
On the 15th, the battery became heavily engaged, and acquitted itself hand- 
somely. 

" We arrived at Dallas on the 25th, where the enemy were found strongly 
intrenched. On the 28th, three guns of the battery were ordered to take 
position one hundred yards in advance of our main line of battle. The posi- 
tion was covered by a thick growth of underbrush, and was swept by the 
enemy's musketry from the front, right and rear. The position of the enemy 
could not be seen from this point, and there was every opportunity for him 
to steal upon us unobserved. We took the position, however, and opened fire. 



598 IOWA IN" WAK TIMES. 

In a few minutes after this the Rebels charged us with great fury. No support 
had been given us, and we were alone, one hundred yards in advance of our 
line of battle. The enemy were swarming upon us from every direction. 
We had fired just thirty-three rounds, mostly canister, when Capt. Griffiths 
ordered the battery out. By the greatest efforts of Capt. Griffiths and the 
men under him, the guns were saved. Many of the battery were compli 
mented by its commander for gallantry in the engagement. On the Gth, 
we were at Acworth, Georgia, a station on the railroad. Here we remained 
till the 8fh of June, when we moved to Kenesaw Mountain. In the battles 
around Kenesaw the battery took an active part, and did good execution, 
firing 1 922 rounds of ammunition. 

"On the 20th, we appeared before Atlanta on the east, and found the 
enemy. The battery was ordered into position, and while so doing the 
Rebels opened with a battery on our right flank, doing fearful execution. I 
was ordered to remain in this position, and not to fire till further orders, and 
for one mortal hour the enemy poured a well directed fire into our silent bat- 
tery. It was indeed a trying hour. Could we have been allowed to respond, 
we could have soon put the rebel battery out of the way. Here Lieut. T. A. 
Ijams was severely wounded and taken off the field. 

" The next day the battery became heavily engaged, and did great execu- 
tion. On the 22d of July occurred the terrible fight before Atlanta. The 
battery took a very active part in this day's work. The Rebels charged the 
battery three times, and were repulsed each time with great slaughter. 

"Corp. Frazier, Sergt. Seburt and many others were mentioned for good 
service this day. 

"August 31st occurred the battle of Jonesboro, in which the battery took an 
active part. The enemy, deceived as to our real movements, suffered us to get 
in his rear, and this decided the fate of Atlanta. On the morning of the 2d of 
September, the enemy had gone. The battery expended 497 rounds of am- 
nition in this engagement. The Rebels charged the battery twice, but were 
repulsed each time, with great loss to them. Corporal P. N. Starkweather 
and Privates James Lonsdale and Dennis W. Dean particularly distin- 
guished themselves for gallantry. The latter lost his left leg. On the 
morning of the 2d we moved in pursuit of the enemy, and found him strongly 
posted at Lovejoy's station. The battery took position and became engaged. 
It was our last engagement in the great campaign." 

Details as to the later service of this battery are not obtainable. It was 
mustered out after an honorable career, at Davenport, July 5, 1865. Its 
captains had been Charles H. Fletcher, Junius A. Jones, Henry H. Griffiths, 
and William H. Gay. For the memoranda of the battery's history given 
here the writer is indebted to the reports of the two last named officers. V. 
G. David, 0. W. Gambell, T. A. Ijams and James W. Williams were first 
lieutenants. 

THE SECOND IOWA BATTERY. 

The writer is indebted to Judge J. R. Reed of the Supreme Court of Iowa 
for the substance of the following sketch of the battery. Judge Reed was 
an officer of the battery and one of the most courageous and competent artil- 
lery commanders in the service. The battery was mustered into the service at 
Council Bluffs, Aug. 18, 1861. Its first service was in the siege of New Madrid. 
Immediately after the evacuation of that place, Reed, then a second lieuten- 
ant, was, with 25 men, sent some distance down the river to man some heavy 
guns. The guns were barely in position when five rebel gunboats came up 
and attempted to shell him out. A hot artillery duel followed, when the 
boats, badly damaged, withdrew from the fight. The battery went next to 
Corinth, and participated in the fight at Fannington. On the 30th of May, 
when Stanley's divison was struck in flank by the Rebels, and on the point 
of disaster, and when other batteries were flying from the front, the Iowa 
Second, by boldly holding its post and pouring a destructive fire of grape 



THE SECOND BATTERY. 599 

and canister into the on-rushing column, checked it and drove it from the 
held. For its gallantry the battery received Stanley's very special thanks. 

luka was the battery's next engagement, September 19, 1862, and then 
Corinth, October 4th and 5th. On the evening of the 4th, when Davies' di- 
vision was being driven back by the Rebels, Stanley was sent to cover his 
retreat. The Second battery went along, and was only in position when a 
heavy force attempted to capture or drive it. This column was met by such 
a tremendous force of double canister from the guns at close range as to 
send it reeling from the field. As it advanced close on the battery, and 
massed, the loss must have been fearful. 

The battery next went with Grant toward Vicksburg, but as the expedi- 
tion came to grief at Holly Springs, the battery returned to near Memphis 
for the winter. 

On the formation of the Fifteenth army corps the brigade to which we 
belonged became the Second brigade, Third division of that corps. Gen. 
J. M. Tuttle was the division commander, and Col. (afterward General) Jo- 
seph A. Mower commanded the brigade. In the spring and summer of 
1863 we participated with the Fifteenth corps in the Vicksburg campaign. 
On the 14th of May, when Gen. Sherman raided Jackson, Mississippi, the 
battery was ordered to the front, there being but a battalion of cavalry (the 
advance guard) and one regiment of infantry in the column ahead of it. 
When we struck the enemy, which we did some three miles from the 
city, we fired the first shot from our side in the engagement at that place; 
and it was our fire that silenced a battery which was in position command- 
ing the road. When the division went forward to the enemy's main line 
we were the leading battery and were first in position, our fire reaching 
well into the city; when the line was carried we were the first battery 
over. This was in front of Sherman. We remained in Jackson until the 
afternoon of the 16th, and then turned toward Vicksburg, reaching the 
vicinity of that place on the evening of the 18th. We took position in the 
line of investment on the 20th, our position being in what is known as the 
Grave-yard road, and within 350 yards of the strong work which com- 
manded that road. 1 think we were engaged every day from that to the 
22d of June, when we were withdrawn from that position and sent out with 
the force under Gen. Sherman on to the line of the " Big Black," where we 
remained until the end of the siege. While in position in the line of invest- 
ment, in addition to our field guns, we used a 30- pounder Parrott gun. The 
fire of that gun was very effective. With it we dismounted one or two guns 
— in the strong work spoken of above, and on one occasion we drove out the 
whole force occupying it. They finally closed every embrasure in the fort, 
and for two weeks before we were withdrawn from its front not a shot was 
fired from it. After the siege we went again to Jackson with Sherman, and 
participated in the siege of that place. After it fell we returned to the lino 
of Big Black, where we remained in camp until late in November, when we 
went on to the line of the Memphis & Charleston railroad, and remained 
at La Grange, Tennessee, until February. 

During the fall of 1863 or the winter of 1S64, the division was transferred 
to the Sixteenth army corps and became the First division of that corps. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1864, the right wing of the Sixteenth corps, under command 
of Gen. A. J . Smith, operated along the Missouri and in West Tennessee and 
Mississippi. Our most important operation was the battle of Tupelo, July 
13th, 14th and 15th. Gen. Mower was in command of the division at that 
time, having succeeded Tuttle in March. On the 13th of July the battery 
rendered a most important service. The two armies were marching in the 
same general direction on converging roads. The Rebels under Forrest were 
on the south road, and a brigade marched over and attacked us while in col- 
umn. We were in a dense woods at the time, and the first intimation our 
troops had of their presence was received through a ringing volley of 
musketry. The attack was now east of a creek, and perhaps a half a mile 
from it. The column was broken up by the crossing, and there was nothing 



600 IOWA IN WAR TIMES. 

in view of the battery back to the creek except one small regiment of 
infantry, numbering not more than 150 men. The attack struck the column 
ahead of us, and its effect was to throw everything into confusion. The 
enemy had come within fifty yards of the road before they were discovered, 
and it seemed impossible to prevent them from obtaining possession of it, 
thus cutting the column in two. Immediately ahead of us was a section of 
Battery E, First Illinois, and it was literally turned on end by the volley. 
The infantry ahead of us was equally surprised and demoralized by the 
attack and were getting out of the way as fast as their legs would carry 
them. No superior officer was present to give orders, and nothing was to 
be done but to act on our own judgment. Our only resource was to fight it out 
■with them on our own hook. We got into position as quickly as we could, and 
without being observed by them. Fortunately our position was on their 
flank, and when we opened fire we enfiladed their line from end to end. The 
surprise was now on the other side, and their retreat was probably as expe- 
ditious as any that has ever occurred. In less than three minutes every man 
in that brigade was giving personal attention to the matter of his own safety. 
The fight was ours. Not another organization or man fired a shot in 
repulsing the attack. 

The battle of Tupelo proper was fought on the 14th and 15th. The posi- 
tion of the battery on the 14th was on the right of the Twelfth Iowa infantry, 
and the left of the Thirty-third Wisconsin. The enemy attacked early in 
the morning, the force on our front being Buford's division, and his attack 
was beaten by these three organizations, assisted perhaps to some_ extent by 
two other regiments. I never saw dead and wounded men as thick on any 
other field as they lay on our front. 1 afterwards saw Gen. Buford's report, 
and he stated his loss at 975. There was a sharp fight on the 15th, in which 
we participated. 

In September we went up White river in Arkansas, and afterward 
marched north in pursuit of Price. We went into Northwest Missouri, 
marching over 500 miles, but never came up with the enemy. _ We then 
went to Nashville, reaching there December 1st, and participated in the bat- 
tle on the 15th and 16th, under Thomas. We fired the first shot on the 15th 
in front of the Sixteenth corps, and when the final crash in Hood's line 
occurred, on the 16th, we were the first battery across his line, crossing at 
the Granny White Pike, and we fired the last artillery shot which was fired 
that day at the retreating enemy. On the 15th our fire compelled the sur- 
render of 700 of Walthall a division. They were on a pike road, on each side 
of which was a stone wall. Our infantry had carried the pike to their left, 
and they attempted to escape through a gap in the stone wall. As soon as 
they began to spread out in the field we opened and they immediately fell 
back to the cover of the wall and afterwards surrendered. On the morning 
of the 16th we went into position in front of the left of the Twenty-third 
corps, and remained in this position until the final crash in Hood's lines, at 
3 p. M. By our fire, that day, we exploded a caisson in each of two rebel 
batteries, and we effectually silenced both of them. It was our fire, in part, 
which destroyed the enemy's work on Shy's Hill, and made the breach in the 
enemy's line, through which McMillen passed and carried the hill and broke 
the line. It is fair to say that a battery belonging to McMillen's brigade, 
which was on our right, contributed largely to the result. 

After the battle we joined in the pursuit of Hood and followed to the 
Tennessee river, when we went into camp and remained until February, 1865. 
Then we were transferred to the Gulf Department and went to New Orleiins 
and afterward to Mobile Bay, where we participated in the siege of Mobile. 
We were in position in the investing line of Spanish Fort, from the begin- 
ning of the siege to the capture of the fort, and were engaged every day. 
Shortly we went to Montgomery, Alabama, and from there to Selma, where 
we remained until late in July, when we were ordered to the state for dis- 
charge. We were mustered out at Davenport on the 7th of August, 1865, 
our term of service being exactly four years to a day. 



THE THIRD BATTERY. 601 

Principal Officers of the Second Ioiva Battery. 

Captains— -N. T. Spoor, J. R. Reed, J. W. Coons. 

Senior First Lieutenants— J. R. Reed, J. W. Coons, J. Burk. 

Junior First Lieutenant — D. P. Walling. 

Second Lieutenants — C. T. Reed, J. Burk, J. E. Snyder. 

Capt. Spoor commanded the battery till 1862, when he was detached 
as chief of artillery, First division. J. R. Reed was in command from 
March, 1862, to June 10, 1865. He was made captain October 1st of the pre- 
vious year. C. T. Reed was mustered out in August, 1864. John W. Coons 
succeeded him in command. 



THIRD IOWA BATTERY. 

This battery was organized by Capt. M. M. Hayden, at Dubuque, in Sep- 
tember, 1861. It was called the Dubuque battery, and for a time was 
attached to the Ninth infantry. Its first active service was with Curtis in 
his campaign and battle of Pea Ridge. It marched with him from Rolla to 
Springfield, chasing Price, and beyond to Sugar Creek, where Price made a 
stand. Here the battery fired its first shot in war. This was February 15, 
1862. After half an hour's brisk firing, at the extreme front, the battery 
boys had the pleasure of seeing the Rebels run from the field. Their first 
real battle was at Pea Ridge, described in chapter 11. A few days previous 
to this a part of the battery had been on an expedition of Col. Vandever's 
to Huntsville. There they learned that the enemy, re-enforced by 10,000 
men, was rapidly marching to attack the union army near Pea Ridge. 
Vandever then made one of the hardest marches of the war. That march, 
the battle, and the movements of the battery for the next year or more, 
were narrated by M. C. Wright, captain of the gallant battery, and we bor- 
row from him. 

"We were forced to march," says the captain, "through one of the 
roughest countries in the Union, ford White river, and make 47 miles in one 
day. The ford over which we crossed was within seven miles of Cross Hol- 
lows, and while our little force was crossing here, the entire rebel army, 
under Van Dorn and Price, was at the former place, though, happily for us, 
ignorant of our whereabouts. So well did Col. Vandever manage the 
march, that no one was allowed to escape, and thus give information to the 
enemy of our proximity. At length, after this most exhausting march, we 
reached the camp of our forces at Pea Ridge about 9 p. M., greatly to the 
joy and surprise of almost every one, who had given us up for lost. The 
exhaustion of that march was so terrible that scarcely one who escaped the 
destruction of the next two days' battle, but could be found in the hospital; 
and many of them, the victims of that day's march, are now in their graves. 

" Early on the morning of the 7th, skirmishing having commenced on the 
extreme right of our line, Vandever's brigade was hurried to the front, and 
instantly became engaged. Two sections of the battery went into action 
under a terrific fire of both infantry and artillery, which were posted in our 
front, about 300 yards distant from Elkhorn Tavern. The First Iowa bat- 
tery, which we relieved, had already been terribly cut to pieces, and was 
forced to leave the field. Before we had been in position ten minutes, we 
had one gun disabled by the enemy's artillery, one limber blown up, and 
several men wounded and horses killed. So destructive was the fire, that 
Col. Carr, commanding the division, who was on the ground, ordered the 
two sections to fall back, which was immediately done. The entire battery 
again took up position to the right of Elkhorn Tavern, where it remained 
until the entire division was forced to fall back in the evening. _ During the 
day the enemy repeatedly charged our position, but were invariably driven 
back in confusion. In one of these charges they managed to secure one of 



602 IOWA IN" "WAR TIMES. 

our guns, which was being placed in an elevated position, some distance to 
the left of the battery, but was almost entirely unsupported. Our division, 
which entered the fight in the morning with less than 2,200 fighting men, 
held their ground for over six hours against nearly five times their number. 
Not until over one-third of the entire division had been killed and 
wounded, did the enemy, afterwards known to be over 12,000 strong, suc- 
ceed in forcing the gallant Carr to retire. 

"The suddenness of their final attack, with the meagerness of our sup- 
port, compelled us to leave two of our guns upon the field. These guns, 
however, were not abandoned until they were spiked, and every horse had 
been killed, and every man serving with them, either killed or wounded. 
We fell back some 400 yards, where, support coming to our aid, we kept 
up fire with the remaining guns, until darkness put an end to the engage- 
ment. 

"We remained on the field during the night, and participated in the 
engagement of the 8th, which terminated in the rout of the enemy, and his 
flight from the field. 

* "Our entire loss in the two days engagement was, 2 men killed, 2 officers, 
and 15 men wounded, 23 horses killed, and 3 guns captured. We fired, dur- 
ing the engagement, over 1,200 rounds of ammunition. I take great pride 
in saying that the battery acquitted itself nobly in this, one of the most 
sanguinary conflicts of the war, and received most complimentary notices 
in the official reports of Colonels Vandever and Carr, also of Brig.-Gen. 
Asboth. Three days after the battle, the army was moved southward again, 
but after one day's march, took the back track, and moved northward to 
Keithsville, where we remained until April 5th, when the army commenced 
the march to Batesville, independence county, Arkansas, which point we 
reached, without encountering anything of interest, about the 10th of May. 
From thence we moved south to Searcy, on Little Red river, and afterward 
returned to Batesville, about the 20th of June. 

"From Batesville, Gen. Curtis commenced his celebrated march to Helena, 
Arkansas, where we arrived on the 12th of July, having encountered most 
terrible hardships on account of the excessive heat, and great scarcity of 
provisions. We remained at Helena until Gen. Steele's expedition against 
Little Rock was organized, in August, 1863. 

"During our stay at Helena, we were a portion of the force in several 
expeditions, most prominent among which were Hovey's Mississippi expedi- 
tion, November, 1862; Gorman's White river expedition, January, 1863, and 
the Yazoo Pass expedition, March, 1863. In the latter expedition, the bat- 
tery took an active part in the bombardment of Fort Femberton, at the 
junction of the Tallahatchie and Yallabusha rivers. It returned to Helena, 
April 8, 1863, remaining in camp until August 11th. The battery took 
part in the defense of this place against the attack of the Rebels under 
Price, Holmes and others, on the 4th of July, 1863. It fired over 1,000 
rounds at the enemy, but escaped without any loss of men, owing to the 
excellent protection of our fortifications. It had 8 horses killed. 

" During the fall of 1862, the battery was the recipient of a splendid stand 
of colors, consisting of a banner and guidon — a present from the ladies of 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They were made of the finest material, and bore 
upon their folds the names of the different engagements in which the bat- 
tery had participated. The banner bore on one side the coat of arms of 
Wisconsin, and on the other that of Iow T a. 

" Forming a portion of Gen. Steele's forces in the Little Rock expedition, we 
took part in the capture of that place, without any loss. We also took part 
in the expedition of Gen. Rice against Arkadelphia, in October, 1863." 

In December, 1863, and January, 1864, the men re-enlisted as veterans, 
under authority of the War Department, and in February the veterans 
of the organization, with the officers, were sent north on furlough, from 
which they returned in May. 

At the expiration of the original term of service of the battery, Septem- 



THE FOURTH BATTERY, MARINE BRIGADE, ETC. 603 

ber 26th, 1864, the non-veterans were sent north, where they, with Capt. M. 
M. Hayclen, were mustered out October 3d, 1864. 

The veterans of a part of the battery nest joined in an escort column, tak- 
ing provisions from Little Rock to Fort Smith. Col. Mackey of the Thirty- 
third infantry led the escort column and Lieut. Dengl commanded the battery. 
It was a dangerous expedition, as Price's army, then being driven out of 
Missouri, was liable to fall on the little column at any hour. Nothing serious 
happened, however, and the command returned to Little Rock on November 
27th, after a hard march through mud and rain of 360 miles. The winter 
passed without noticeable events and the summer found the battery well 
equipped and ready for action. But no action came. In August, Capt. 0. 
H. Lyon; then in command, was ordered to take the battery to Fort Smith, 
where a great Indian council was being held. The council over, the battery 
was soon mustered out of the service at Davenport. This was October 23d. 
It then had 153 officers and men, and had served just four years. Its officers 
during its service had been Captains M. M. Hayden, M. C. Wright and 0. 
H. Lyon; Lieutenants W. H.~ McClure, H. H. Weaver, 0. G. Day, J. J. 
Dengl, W. H. Gilford, W. H. Crozier, J. Bradley, L. S. House, C. S. Martin, 
D. U. Lee, R. McFate. 



FOURTH BATTERY. 

Iowa had also a Fourth battery of artillery, but it entered the service 
very late, saw little active field duty, and was in no battle. It was 
mustered in at Davenport in the autumn of 1863, with P. H. Goode as 
captain, and Lieutenants Beatty, McClellan, Alexander, Ellsworth and 
Joseph Brown. 

It remained with Gen. Sully in the West till February 22, 1864, when it 
arrived in New Orleans. It remained as a part of the guard of the city 
during the absence of Banks's army in the Red river campaign, and after- 
ward marched to Thibodeaux, where it remained until mustered out on 
July 14, 1865. It was a splendidly equipped battery, and the men did 
the duty given them patriotically and well. 



IOWA IN THE MARINE BRIGADE AND OTHER BRANCHES OF 
THE SERVICE. 

Iowa had many soldiers in the service of the country outside the reg- 
ular state organizations, who did valorous duty for the cause. One recalls 
the Iowa company that belonged to the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry. Its 
captain was F. A. Stratton of Dubuque, with G. S. Ringland and G. W. 
Bassett as lieutenants. The men were mostly from the Fifth congressional 
district and served with conspicuous gallantry in all the campaigns of the 
Potomac. 

The Thirteenth United States Regulars, Gen. Sherman's old regiment, 
was composed partly of Iowa men. and once when escorting the general on 
a raiding train from Memphis to Corinth, were attacked by a great number 
of rebel cavalry under Chalmers. Nothing but the most desperate fighting 
on the part of a handful of men, directed by Sherman in person, " saved 
him _ and his entire staff from capture or death. It was 2,500 Rebels 
fighting 450 union men, J 50 of whom were from this state. At last after 
heavy losses to them, the Rebels were beaten off. The little band of Iowa 
men had 4 killed, 5 wounded and 3 missing. Lieutenants John Gates 
and R. M. Nelson were among the wounded. 

"Ellet's Ram Fleet," or the Mississippi Marine Brigade, was another 
organization containing Iowa men. Gen. Alfred W. Ellet was its com- 



601 IOWA IN" WAR TIMES. 

mander and Lieut. S. G. Curtis of Iowa was adjutant of the infantry con- 
tingent. It was a novel organization, composed of armed transports bear- 
ing companies of infantry, artillery and cavalry, and several boats rigged 
for ramming. The little fleet became the scouts of the Mississippi river, 
the terror of guerrillas, and the defenders of steamers passing down to 
the armies. It was of immense service to the cause. Owing to its novel 
organization and perfect equipment, it could rapidly move from point to 
point along the river, land and fight an enemy, and if pushed, hurry 
back to its safe defense on its boats. Its activity speedily cleared both 
banks of the great river of the marauding bands whose habit had been 
to fire on transports, burn and murder and then fly to the interior. Now 
they were pursued and punished, and towns, like Austin, that harbored 
them, burned to the ground._ A fleet like this, organized earlier in the 
war, would have kept the Mississippi river open, and the great campaigns 
for Vicksburg, Port Hudson, etc., never would have been necessities. It 
is a credit to Iowa that men from the state helped in an organization 
doing so much good service. 

Iowa had besides these, parts of companies serving in different states 
that helped to increase her share in the war. There were, too, single 
officers of merit serving in almost every staff department at the govern- 
ment. One recalls Col. Corkhill serving on staff of Sedgwick, Col. C. W. 
Asmussen, assistant provost marshal at the War Department, and the 
man who selected the vital position for defense at Gettysburg. Also 
Capt. J. G Read, an Iowa railroad man, killed at Bull Run . Lieut. Win- 
terbotham, one of the gallant men of the One-Hundred-and-fifty-fifth 
New York; and then, too, W. Penn Clarke, T. H. Stanton, C. 0. Carpenter, 
Maj. Saunders, Maj. J. B. Young, Elijah Sells, M. L. McPherson, Col. 
David Renick, Capt. S. L. Taggart and Maj. Hoyt Sherman, all citizens of 
note in the state, and faithful officers in one department or another of the 
union army. 



ADDENDA. 



In the chapters on " Citizen Patriots" and " Soldier Civilians," 
reference to numerous honorable and worthy names was unin- 
tentionally omitted. 

Among them was the name of Isaac Brandt of Des Moines, 
an ardent patriot in the war times, a strong Abolitionist, and an 
intimate friend of John Brown. 

The Hon. Judge Jas. Gr. Day was another of Iowa's subordi- 
nate soldiers who acquired state distinction. He was a captain 
of the Fifteenth infantry, and was badly wounded at Shiloh. 
The war over, he served for a time as a district judge at Council 
Bluffs, and was later elevated to a Chief Justiceship of the state. 
He is known as a man of sterling integrity, as a jurist of high 
attainments, and as a just judge who has brought honor to him- 
self and to the supreme bench of Iowa. 



In" a note of Mr. John A. Kasson's something of interest is 
related as to Iowa's first battery. It would be a curious fact 
had Iowa's first guns been furnished by order of Robert E. 
Lee, while he was yet a loyal man : 

" When the Fourth regiment was formed," says Mr. Kasson, " they asked 
ine to get them some guns, if possible, and mentioned those which were 
lying practically useless at Fort Kearney. 1 went to Lt.-Gen. Scott, at that 
time Chief of the Army. It was the last time I ever saw the old lion-headed 
hero, and (I think) just before Lee deserted him and the Union, and went 
over to the Rebellion. After some inquiry, Gen. Scott issued the order to 
deliver the guns for a battery to the Fourth regiment. I cannot say if the 
order was made out by Lee — then his Chief of Staff —or not. But my impres- 
sion is that it was. The fact impressed on my memory is, that the noble old 
hero of Lundy's Lane and the War of 1812, made the order for delivering 
the first battery to the Iowa troops, disarming old Fort Kearney for the pur- 
pose." 



(605) 



LOSSES IN IOWA REGIMENTS. 



BEGIMENTS. 


Deaths from 
Battle. 


Deaths from 
Disease. 


Wounded. 


Discharged. 


Cavalry 

1st 

2d 

3d 


Officers 

: 

j 
S 


Men 
! 6'. 
6S 
8] 
6'. 
4£ 
24 
4 r 
36 
16 

10 
2 
4 


Officers 
! 5 
! 5 

4 
6 

1 

] 
.. 

3 

1 


Men 
191 
19- 
22( 
19C 
131 
65 
9£ 
95 
16a 

51 
29 
33 
6 

8 

111 

11 

27 

101 

9 

239 

91 

124 

137 

138 

209 

135 

149 

244 

183 

122 


Officers 
i 4 
I li 
> £ 
) 7 
6 
I 



10 

2 



2 


Men 

84 

161 

15 r 

115 

5C 

If 

£ 

77 

15 

29 
15 
lfi 


i Officers 

i 1 

1 

6 

e 
i 
i 

s 

2 
1 
1 


Men 

203 

169 

305 

233 

223 

86 

246 

64 

62 

34 
16 
26 


4th 


5th 


6th 


7th 


8th 

9th 


Batteries. 
1st 




2d 




3d 




4th 




Infantry. 
1st 


1 

10 
2 

6 
2 
6 

10 
8 
7 
4 

13 
6 
5 
4 
6 
5 

8 
8 
5 
2 
6 
1 
4 
6 
5 
9 
2 
6 


17 
75 
14 
4 
83 
18 

109 
89 

132 

129 
94 

135 
92 
80 
62 

100 
51 

130 
89 
61 
35 
86 
13 
67 

106 
69 

112 
61 
71 
21 
76 
38 
64 
27 
89 
63 
6 


1 
1 

o 
1 
2 
3 
4 
2 

2 
8 
3 
1 


4 
23 
3 
1 
34 


137 

245 

41 

8 

335 






2d 


2 

1 
1 


328 

3 

28 

230 
1 


3d.. 




5th 

6th 


" 16 
17 
18 
23 
14 
26 
16 

8 
13 
19 

6 


322 
282 
335 
331 
214 
359 
261 
226 
209 
294 
162 


1 

6 
5 

4 
5 
4 
4 


298 
237 
258 
288 
308 
269 


7th 

8th 

9th 


10th 


11th 


151 

257 
269 
190 
11 


12th ... 

13th.. 

14th 


15th 

16th 

17th 


2 
3 
1 
1 
2 

2 
1 

2 
4 
2 
4 
3 
3 
1 
2 
2 
2 
1 
2 


196 

217 

98 

112 

97 

137 

159 

128 

198 

200 

199 

207 

166 

182 

249 

233 

261 

204 

199 

229 

3 

10 

184 

227 

142 

311 

120 

184 

2 

14 

18 

23 

46 

4 

336 


22 

21 

20 

5 

7 

6 

11 

22 

9 

17 

19 

22 

7 

16 

8 

17 

8 

9 

9 

3 


394 
290 
225 

74 
191 

46 
150 
245 
126 
243 
164 
143 
135 
246 

99 
205 

77 
133 
168 

13 


3 

2 
1 

2 
3 
5 
2 
4 
1 
1 
6 
5 
4 
8 
3 

7 
2 
1 

1 

1 

3 

12 


302 
209 


18th 

19th 


228 


20th 


163 


21st 










177 


24th 


204 


25th 


138 


26th 


141 


27th 


202 


28th 


6 
1 
9 
2 
6 
4 
1 


182 


29th 

30th 


124 
142 


31st 


175 


32d.. 


166 


33d 


143 


34th " 


313 
3 


34th Consolidated (34th & 38th) 

35th 

36th 


4 
1 


6 
44 
69 
3 
1 
55 
15 


4 
6 

3 
3 
2 
2 


1 
2 

4 

5 

2 


14 

93 

142 

2 

2 

108 
41 


36 
189 
191 


37th 


356 


38th 




117 


39th 

40th 


7 


123 
121 


41st 




15 


44th 




1 
3 
3 
1 


1 










45th 






1 
21 






46th 








47th 








48th 













l8t African Infantry 


1 


6 


i 


1 1 




40 



The above is condensed from the reports in the Adjutant General's office, and except as 
to certain captured regiments must be considered as very nearly correct. The long list of 
discharges was mostly for wounds or disability. Thousands of the discharged died on their 
way home or remained invalids for life. 

The number of officers who resigned, not given in the table, is 1,225; the number of offi- 
cers dismissed, 56. 

Of Iowa soldiers, 12.368 were dead before the war closed, 8,848 had been wounded in bat- 
tle, and 9,987 had been discharged for wounds or ruined health. This was from an army of 
6trong, young men, averaging less than 25 years of age. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF NAMES. 



[Note.— The figures following the names indicate the page upon which they are to be 
found. The names of all field and staff officers appear with the histories of the regiments 
of which they were members.] 



Abbott Chas H, 226 542 
Abbott Col, 202 
Abel T B, 463 
Abercrombie Col, 142 172 312 

316 504. 
Abernethy Lt-Col, 320 500 
Abernethy Lieut, 79 174 235 
Abraham Lot, 589 " 
Ackerman M, 281 
Adams A, 229 458 
Adams S P, 464 
Adams W, 242 
Affairs in Iowa, 71 et seq 
Akers J W, 450 
Akers Sergt, 171 
Albaugh Capt, 156 
Alcorn Lieut, 155 
Aldrich C, 452 
Aledo, 43 

Alexander W L, 5 203 451 540 
Allen D B, 575 
Allen I L, 326 
Allen W G, 399 
Allatoona, battle of, 351 
Allison Leander, 257 
Allison Robt, 257 
Allison W B, 59 272 273 326 

458 
Amaua, 44 464 
Amos Lieut. 288 299 
Anderson A R, 390 
Anderson Bugler, 367 
Anderson Capt J, 581 
Anderson O F, 593 594 
Anderson C L, 174 235 
Anderson Col, 572 
Anderson Dan, 328 
Anderson K L, 228 
Anderson John, 319 
Anderson Lieut, 79 
Anderson J T, 451 
Anderson R, 227 
Andersonville, 476 
Andrews Gen, 553 
Andrews C C, 411 
Ankeuy Capt, 570 
Anthroubus 3ergt, 597 
Archer Col, 257 514 
Archer John, 322 
Archer S M, 181 356 
Arkansas Post, battle of, 201 
Armstrong Sergt, 353 
Arnim Capt, 584 588 
Andrews Maj, 134 
Arnold Deloss, 463 
Arthur R, 228 
Ayers O C, 354 
Asmussen C W, 604 
Atlanta, battle for, 301 
Atmore E W, 329 

Bagley Col, 279 
Baird Sergt, 299 
Baird H, 593 



Baker Lieut, 167 

Baker Gen N B, 56 et seq 181 

183 328 
Baker Col, 99 103 135 163 170 
Baldwin Caleb, 59 464 
Baldwin Lieut, 307 
Ballard D P, 210 
Ball Lieut, 408 
Ballinger Lieut, 170 
Banbury Maj, 168 171 489 
Bandy J F, 367 
Banks Capt, 558 
Banks Gen, 208 274 
Bare Sergt, 299 
Barker P N, 386 
Barker R F, 307 
Barner H G, 593 595 
Barr Capt, 318 
Barr G, 287 

Bartholomew Lieut, 227 
Bashore Capt, 233 
Bashore J L, murder of, 474 
Bassett G W, 603 
Bates S, 229 
Bates J F, 60 
Baugh J M, 239 
Beardsley Chas, 464 468 
Beaufort's Bridge, 389 
Beauregard Gen, 127 
Beauregard P T, 340 
Beck J M, 51 
Beckwith S G, 223 
Beebe Lieut, 167 
Beeson Sergt, 367 
Beeson B A, 452 
Belfield Lieut, 594 
Belknap W W, 142 143 164 171 

172 312 316 318 321348 398 

431 et seq 
Bell Col, 5 134 203 371 404 407 

409 497 
Bell J W, 120 

Belmont, battle of, 81 et seq 
Belmont, After, 88 
Bennett G J, 170 
Bennett Sergt, 171 
Bennett J C, 35 
Bennett Lieut, 594 
Benson H H, 134 
Benson Capt, 546 
Benteen Col, 588 
Benton Col, 237 285 299 538 

540 583 
Bentonsville, battle of, 397 
Berg Lieut, 281 
Bernstein C S, 590 
Berkey Corporal, 103 
Bess Sergt, 171 
Bevins Capt. 117 
Big Blue, 583 
Biglow W H, 465 
Bilden Lieut, 576 
Bing Lieut, 103 170 
Birrje Col, 98 

(607) 



Bishop Capt, 576 

Bissell F E, 457 

Bissell Miss, 458 

Black CaDt, 249 

Black Corporal, 172 597 

Black Henry, 282 

Black Private, 367 

Blackmar E C, 143 

Black River Bridge, battle of, 

220 
Blair Gen, 340 
Blair Frank P, 30 308 
Blake Lieut, 170 
Blakely, capture of, 410 
Blanchard L C, 449 
Blanchard F, 290 
Blue Capt, 246 
Blunt Gen, 186 187 190 192 
Blue Mills, battle of, 77 et 

seq 
Boardman Capt, 6, 210 223 
Boarts J A, 379 
Boler Adjt, 87 
Bonson S R, 458 
Boomer Col, 227 489 
Booth Editor, 468 
Booth Mrs, 458 
Bowen O A, 120 
Bowen Jesse, 20 43 46 
Bowers Sergt, 290 
Bowman Capt, 399 
Bowman A 390 
Boydston C B, 409 550 
Boyer J A, 372 
Bradley Lieut, 117 
Bradshaw C P, 542 
Brainerd N H, 464 468 
Brandt I, Addenda 
Brass E A, 409 
Brawner Lieut, 136 
Brawner Sergt, 103 
Brighton, 43 
Brodtbeck Maj, 103 507 
Brooks Lieut, 190 
Brown Auditor, 450 
Brown Capt, 156 583 584 588 
Brown Col, 235 
Brown Gen, 246 
Brown J C, 245 
Brown J D, 589 
Brown J J, 595 
Brown John, 17 et seq 
Brown Lieut, 143 220 
Brown Sergt, 143 172 379 
Browne Lieut, 213 
"Bruce Capt, 190 
Bruce J, 404 
Bruce, Maj, 242 
Brush F A, 281 
Bryan P G, 451 575 
Brydolf P, 140 
Buchanan John, 22 215 
Buck J A, 318 
Buckner S B. 101 



608 



INDEX. 



Buell Gen, 92 123 144 


Chester S J, 226 


Corse J M, 138 232 250 254 


Buell Lieut, 275 281 


Chickasaw Bayou, 199 


302 348 352 354 355 441 493 


Bull Capt, 117 


Childs Lieut, 223 


564 


Bullock Sergt, 290 


Childs G H, 229 


Coulter E, 520 


BundeL, 143 


Chipman N P, 483 


Coulter Col, 103 567 


Bunker H W, 257 


Chipman Maj, 103 104 


Cowan W R, 239 


Burdett 8 S, 326 


Chittenden J T, 12J 


Cowles Capt, 170 


Burdick A A, 369 


Christie Lieut, 299 


Cowles H R, 39 


Burdick Lieut, 174 


Churchill Corporal, 103 


Cox Gen, 340 


Burgan E G, 120 


Citizen Patriots, 454 


Cox Capt, 103 136 


Burk Capt, 203 


Claflin Lieut, 117 


Coyl Maj, 117 120 


Burk J, 601 


Claggett T W, 266 


Crabb Capt, 86 


Burke T A, 310 


Clark A M, 408 


Crabb Col, 246 247 517 


Burmeister Capt, 282 


Clark Capt, 172 379 588 


Craig Capt, 213 


Burnell A L, 472 


Clark C L, 384 


Craig J W, 216 


Burns G W, 695 


Clark Col, 202 


Craig Lieut, 143 


Burnett R M, 463 


Clark Ezekiel, 45 53 464 


Craig Sergt, 171 


Burnside Gen, 175 


Clark M, 258 


Craigie Lieut, 134 


Burt Judge, 464 


Clark G W, 384 411 414 552 553 


Crail Capt, 583 


Burton Col, 487 


554 561 


Cram D W 0, 596 


Burton G, 120 


Clark Rush, 104 464 465 


Crane Capt, 559 


Bussey Cyrus F, 115 442 578 


Clark Samuel, 467 


Crane Lieut, 117 


579 581 582 


Clark Sergt, 366 


Crapo P M, 477 478 


Butler J, 20 462 


Clark W P, 20 460 


Crawford Lieut, 318 585 594 


Butterfield D G, 3&6 


Clark "W T, 436 


Crawford P W, 137 


Butterfleld Gen, 302 


Clarke C S, 268 


Creamer Capt, 203 


Byam Col, 529 


Clarke L, 216 


Cree A B, 384 


Bye Capt, 398 


Clarke S K, 203 


Cree Capt, 379 


Byers J M, 463 


Clarke W P, 604 


Creighton Lieut, 203 


Byers S H M, 217 255 349 390 


Clarkson O F, 460 


Crocker Capt, 576 


396 


Clarkson J S, 452 


Crocker Brigade, 436 503 




Clarkson R P, 452 


Crocker Col M M, 89 135 141 


Cabell Gen, 583 


Clement Mrs, 458 


161 164 172 176 177 211 212 


Caldron J N, 477 


Clemons M L, 228 


213 261 434 et seq 501 


Caldwell Capt, 570 571 


Clendenning Adjt, 258 


Croft Col, 93 


Caldwell H C, 261 578 582 


Cleveland Capt, 134 


Crooke Capt, 210 223 522 523 


Caldwell Judge, 449 


Clingfield H J, 287 


Crookham Jeff, 85 


Caldwell J W, 570 571 573 


Cloud A, 228 


Crosby J P, 573 


Caldwell Lieut, 318 


Cloud D C, 463 


Crosley G W 233 


Caldwell S T, 464 


Cloutman Capt, 99 103 


Crosley Lieut, 79 137 


Callanan Jas and Mrs, 465 


Clover Capt, 290 


Crouch R J, 463 


Camden, campaign of, 284 


Clune W H, 492 


CroxtonOol, 593 594 


Cameron O A, 353 


Cobb J H, 594 


Cumings Mrs, 458 


Cameron Sergt, 171 


Cobb Howell, 589 


Cummins Capt, 46 


Cameron Simon, 28 46 60 496 


Cole C, 260 326 465 


Cunningham Maj, 172 


Camp D W, 380 


Collins M F, 568 


Curkendall Capt, 583 


Campbell F T, 299 447 565 


Colter Sergt, 367 


Curtis A S, 597 


Campbell Col H J, 515 516 


Colton Lieut, 157 


Curtis Horse, 590 


Campbell J Q A, 453 


Columbia, capture of, 392 


Curtis S G, 604 


Campbell Sergt, 170 


Columbus, 92 584 590 


Curtis Lieut, 588 


Campbell W J, 368 370 


Commanders, Iowa, 416 


Curtis Gen S R, 38, 113 120 


Canby EES, 402 


Compton J F, 142 


420 426 et seq 498 


Canby Gen, 415 


Comstock A J, 299 


Cushman Lieut, 174 


Carbee Capt, 216 


Conant G H, 257 


Custer Gen, 574 


Carolinas, campaign of, 387 


Conaway Lieut, 291 




Carpenter C C, 445 604 


Conn G F, 170 


Dance J, 595 


Carpenter Capt, 117 


Conner T R, 299 


Danielson J A, 143 


Carr Gen, 208 209 403 574 


Connell Col, 211 536 


Darling Jerome, 219 


Carr J W, 381 


Connell John, 277 


Dart W T and Mrs, 463 


Carskaddon Col, 499 


Conrad W F, 449 531 


Darwin C B, 326 


Carskaddon Capt, 117 


Converse Lieut, 546 


Day J G, 143 and Addenda 


Casad Lieut, 156 


Cook Capt, 46 


Dawson J G, 227 


Cassiday F M, 562 


Cook Col. 247 


David J B, 596 


Cathcart W, 171 


Cook Lyman, 461 


David V J, 120 596 598 


Cattell J and Mrs, 465 


Cook M W, 382 


Davis Capt, 170 


Cavender Maj, 129 


Cook T Z, 514 


Davidsou J W, 572 


Cavendish J G G, 191 


Coolbaugh W F, 461 


Davis Charles, 385 


Chamberlain E W, 569 


Cooley Judge, 464 


Davis Jeff, 177 338 592 


Chambers Col, 39 142 155 503 


Cooley Mrs, 458 


Davis Jeff 0, 114 302 


Champion Hills, battle of, 214 


Coon D E, 161 366 576 577 


Davis D J, 210 379 


Chandler Lieut, 379 


578 


Davis Lieut, 103 379 


Chantry A J, 2d6 


Coon J W, 601 


Davis Mrs, 458 


Chapiu Editor, 467 


Cooper S F, 564 565 566 


Davis R W, 384 


Cnaae S P, 333 


Copperheads, 474 


Davis Sergt, 299 


Chase Newby, 307 


Coppic Barclay, 26 471 


Davis S T, 465 


Chattanooga, battle of, 250 


Corinth, battle of, 159 et seq 


Deal G W, 216 


Cheraw, capture of, 395 


Corkhill Col, 604 


Deal Lieut, 257 


Cherokee, fight at, 258 


Cornwell DK, 458 


Dean D S, 381 



INDEX. 



609 



Dean D W, 598 

Dean H C, 265 

Dean Sergt, 290 

Deane J A A, 568 

DeCamp Wm, 210 

Dee E W, 590 

DeGress Capt, 319 

DeHeuss Lieut, 83 84 

Delahoyd Adjt, 227 

Delay K, 583 

Des Moines, meeting at, 37 

Dengl J J, 603 

Dengle Sergt, 241 

Dennis E S, 243 

Detwiler Lieut, 594 

Devine J, 281 

Dewey J N, 466 

Dilman S J, 216 

Dillman S S, 380 

Dillin Lieut, 171 

Dillon Lieut, 136 

Dillon L H, 589 

Dillon J F, 463 

Dimmitt W C, 277 

Dodd C J, 314 

Dodd Wm, 137 174 

Dodge Lieut, 86 

Dodge G M, 89 110 121 192 304 

307 314 315 321 340 343 416 et 

seq 
Dolson Lieut, 223 
Donahue Robt, 461 
Donnell J A, 575 
Doane Capt, 594 
Donelson, bittle of, 91 et seq 
Doolittle Sergt, 103 170 
Dorr J B, 593 594 
Dorr Lieut, 103 
Dorr Q M, 134 
Dorrance O F, 277 
Doty Sergt, 103 
Dow Lieut, 287 
Dow C W W, 573 574 
Downey H D, 20 
Downs W H, 245 
Doyle F N, 143 
Drake F M, 286 287 291 292 

294 
Drake G W, 20 
Drake W C, 579 580 581 
Draper Simeon, 47 
Drips Capt, 117 
Drummond Alvin, 228 
Drummond H, 228 
Drummond T, 590 
Drummond W, 595 
Duckworth Lieut, 170 
Dudley E G, 384 
Duffield G, 533 
Duflield Lieut, 170 
Duffin Sergt, 172 
Duffin Lieut, 310 
Dugau Lieut, 282 
Duncan Adjt, 134 
Duncan Gapt, 285 288 515 
Dnncan L A, 565 566 
Duncan E D, 141 
Duncan Lieut, 103 
Dungan Col W S, 552 554 
Dungan W S.451 
Dunham Clark, 466 
Dunham Col, 193 
Dunlap Col, 209 210 223 229 248 

249 
Duniavy Jas, 583 
Dunn Sergt, 103 
Ewe Lieut, 577 
Dye Col W McE, 191 520 521 

I. W. T— 39 



Earle Lieut, 235 

Eastman E W, 460 

Eaton J P, 178 

Eaton Capt, 576 578 

Earle Capt, 134 

Early Gen, 374 

Eberhart G A, 364 413 548 

Edgington Capt, 134 

Edgington W W, 380 

Edmundson Judge, 462 

Edmunds-n Lieut. 288 

Edwards Edward, 392 

Edwards Sergt, 174 

Edwards Corporal, 137 

Edwards G W, 468 

Edwards John, 89 288 514 515 

516 
Egbert Capt, 576 
Eighnoy Corporal, 172 
Eisenhart J S, 414 
Eldridge Lieut, 143 
Eldridge R H, 171 
Elkius' Ford, 286 
Ellett A W, 603 
Elliott J A, 326 
Elliott Sergt, 172 
Elliott W L, 89 575 576 
Ellis Col, 579 580 
Ellis Lieut, 156 
Elson J M, 227 
Ely, Hospital Steward, 3/9 
Ely J F, 462 
Ely Mrs, 462 
Emry D H, 257 
Emerson, 22 
Englemann Gen, 287 296 
English W It, 486 
Ennis Adjt, 233 
Ennis T J, 257 
Ennis Maj, 492 
Ensign Capt, 170 
Ensign E T, 595 
Ensign Lieut, 103 
Estle Lieut, 86 
Eureka, Anamosa, 468 
Evans Capt, 594 
Evans Lieut, 318 
Evans Sam, 452 
Ewing J D, 223 
Eystra Lieut, 576 
Ezra Church, battle of, 321 

Fagan Gen, 238 

Fales Mrs J T, 456 

Familton W, 463 

Farmington, battle of, 576 

Farwell S S, 544 545 

Fayetteville, capture of, 396 

Fellows Capt, 117 

Ferguson Col, 134 

Ferguson J C, 495 

Ferreby Col, 258 532 

Ferreby T G, 202 

Field A, 171 

Finley Dr, 1C3 

Fisher M L, 262 

Fitch A B, 589 

Fitkin Sergt, 597 

Flags of the regiments, 330 

Fletcher C H, 596 598 

Flint Private, 3G5 

Folsom Corporal, 241 

Foote D W, 174 

Foote Senator, 461 

Foraker Gov, 397 

Forbes C H, 21 

Force Gen, 312 

Forker Lieut, 584 



Forrest Gen, 173 369 371 E84 
Foster C, 142 
Foster J T, 573 
Foster Lieut. 576 
Foster Maj, 318 
Foster Sue), 20 367 462 
Fowler J G, 567 
Francisco John, 210 
Franklin, battle of, 358 
Fraser Capt, 155 
Frazier E S, 143 
Frazier Corporal, 598 
Free T, 245 
Freeman Capt, 576 
Fremont Gen, 64 
Fuller Col, 195 
Fuller I K and Mrs, 46 
Fuller Mrs, 456 
Funk W P, 550 

Gale B B, 170 

Gale Sergt, 171 

Galligan Col, 110 120 

Galligan J, 596 

Gambell O W, 596 

Gardner Capt, 83 86 

Gardner Corporal, 597 

Gardner J, 587 

Garey Lieut, 174 

Garfield J A, 140 

Garmo W W, 299 

Garrett Col, 285 298 

Garrett John A, 564 565 

Garrett Lieut, 171 

Gary S G, 137 

Gary Simon, 174 

Gaston G B, 22 

Gaston A D, 226 

Gates E N, 462 

Gates John, 603 

Gay W H, 597 

Gazette Davenport, 467 

Gear J H, 461 

Gearkee J H, 228 

Gearkee Maj. 379 

Geary S G, 235 

Geddes Col, 133 134 442 495 

Generals, list of Iowa, 443 

Gephart Lieut, 318 

Gibbon Dr, 172 

Gibson H D, 240 549 

Gilbert Col J I, 275 281 362 

364 368 370 413 414 535 548 
Gilchrist Col, 452 
Glasgow Col, 210 243 244 526 
Godfrey G L, 170 
Godfrey Lieut, 103 
GoodePH, 143 603 
Goodrell Lieut, 398 
Goodrell S, 466 
Gottschalk Capt, 46 
Gould J E, 3S0 
Gower J O, 569 570 
Graham Col H, 228 379 380 

384 525 
Grand Army of the Republic, 

477 
Granger Capt, 275 281 
Granger Adjt, 227 
Granger Gen, 402 
Granger G W, 231 
Grannis Sergt, 103 366 
Grant Gen U S, 82 98 101 149 

196 203 206 207 217 221 222 

252 258 301 346 
Graves J K, 5 42 458 560 
Graves R E, 42 
Graves Capt, 576 



610 



INDEX. 



Gray G A. 191 
Greaves D, 229 
Green G, 464 
Gregg Lawrence, 87 
Gregory Lieut, 220 
Gresham Gen, 312 340 
Grierson Gen, 582 
Griffin W, 228 
Griffith Capt, 320 
Griffith Lieut, 367 
Griffiths Sergt, 228 
Griffiths H H, 597 598 
Griffiths Capt, 120 209 
Grimes J «, 492 
Grimes J T, 140 
Grimes J W, 181 270 
Grimes Mrs, 44 455 
Grinnell J B, 5 20 272 326 458 

473 
Griswold Lieut, 681 
Grover Gen, 377 
Gue J 0, 216 
Guntown, battle of, 582 

Hackleman Gen, 162 

Haddock Capt, 134 

Haddock W, 595 

Hall H C, 258 

Hall Col, 140 142 164 172 

Hall Lieut, 170 171 

Hall E W, 235 

Hall W H, 306 

Hall Judge, 49 

Hall William, 308 316 432 

Hall WM 536 

Halleck Gen, 91 102 

Halliday J S, 140 

Hamill W B, 137 174 

Hamill Lieut, 170 

Hamill Maj, 323 

Hamilton Maj, 291 292 293 

452 557 558 
Hamilton R W, 143 
Hampton G S, 141 172 
Hampton Wade, 388 
Hancock J T. 458 
Hanby Banker, 464 
Hanks Capt, 171 
Hanks Lieut, 143 
Hardee Gen, 416 
Hare Chaplain, 241 293 
Hare \ M, 140 141 142 
Harlan Jas, 181 271 
Harlan Mrs, 455 
Harper Capt, 86 103 
Harper's Ferry, 17 
Harris R L, 20 471 
Harrison Capt, 223 
Harrison J M, 210 229 
Hart Dr H W, 561 
Hartley C, 384 
Hartley Capt, 379 
Hartman Sergt, 366 
Hartsville, battle of, 248 
Harvey J A, 326 
Haslip A M, 368 
Hatch Col E, 161 170 363 366 

442 575 576 577 
Hatchie, battle of, 173 
Haverly C E, 381 
Haw Capt. 590 
Hawkeye Burlington, 5 466 
Haworth G, 319 
Hiyden M M, 601 
Hayden Capt, 117 
Haydock D W, 452 
Hays Lieut, 134 
Hazen Gen, 302 345 



Hazlett Lieut, 281 

Head Capt Albert, 227 453 

Head Lieut Mahlon, 257 

Heath Col H H, 240 570 596 

Heaton G, 320 

Heck Private, 367 

Hedges Capt. 171 

Hedges C, 461 

Hedrick J M, 318 433 505 506 

Hedrick Capt T, 318 

Helena, battle of, 236 

Hemenway H C, 451 

Henderson D B, 171 440 567 

568 
Henderson D W, 210 
Henry Fort, 92 
Henry W R, 210 
Hepburn W P, 176 447 576 577 
Herald Oskaloosa, 468 
Herbert Lieut, 143 
Herron Corp, 453 
Herron Gen Frank J, 40 46 

70 186 187 188 192 241 438 
Hicks Capt, 213 
Hight J T, 594 
Higley Q M, 172 
Hill F, 282 
Hill S G, 281 362 364 365 368 

442 556 
Hill W M, 265 
Hillis D B, 213 
Hindman Gen, 187 191 571 
Hobbs Lieut, 79 
Hobbs Capt, 137 
Hobson Capt, 220 
Hoffman DrDA, 463 
Hogin G B, 477 
Hogin W F, 134 
Holbrook J M, 281 
Holcomb G H, 143 313 
Holcomb Lieut, 156 
Holmes W H, 326 
Holmes A E, 281 
Holmes Gen, 237 
Holmes Lieut, 103 233 
Holson Capt, 220 
Holson Col, 171 
Halt Joseph, 40 
Hood Gen, 323 351 357 417 
Hood's Invasion, 351 
Hooker Gen, 252 302 340 
Hope Sergt, 171 
Hope J B, 170 
Horner Capt, 356 
Horner Mrs, 464 
Hornets' Nest, 145 
Horton C C, 366 578 
Horton Adjt, 594 
Horton J S and Mrs, 463 
House A E, 596 
House Sergt, 241 
Houseworth S, 381 
Houston Maj, 525 528 
Houston Capt, 213 257 
Hovey Gen, 201 209 215 
Howard Gen, 306 340 343 413 
Howard Maj, 535 
Howard Capt, 170 
Howard N B, 320 
Howard T O, 281 
Howard Adjt, 223 
Howell J B, 467 
Hoxie Capt, 593 
Hoxie H M, 2D 36 179 265 464 
Hubbard Mrs, 463 
Hubbard N I), 258 
Hubbard Judge, 462 465 
Hubbaid A W, 326 



Huber Lieut, 157 

Hudson N C, 465 

Hudson Lieut D, 313 

Hudson J C, 568 

Huff J H, 594 

Hughes Dr, 104 231 

Hugo Victor, 22 

Hull Lieut, 379 

Hull Lt-Gov, 447 

Hull A, 281 

Humphrey Chaplain, 366 

Humphrey Capt, 379 

Hundred Days' Men, 334 

Hunt B T, 326 

Hunter Gen, 569 

Hunter J R C, 171 

Huntington Lieut, 103 

Huntley C H, 281 

Hurlbut J A, 293 

Hurlbut Gen, 124 173 

Hurton Lieut, 576 

Hursh Jacob, 572 

Huston Lieut, 557 

Hutchcraft R W, 143 

Hutchins S, 266 

Hutchinson J, 368 281 41 J 414 

Hyde P S, 202 

Ijams T A, 597 598 
Independence, fight at. 583 
Ingalls Rev P P, 465 585 
Ingersoll L D, 467 512 
Inman Capt, 399 
Inskeep J M, 213 
Irvin Capt, 171 
Irvin F A, 170 
Irwin Lieut J S, 372 
Irwin Lieut, 171 
Iseminger Capt, 138 140 
Isett J H, 594 
Island No 10, 146 et seq 575 
Iuka, battle of, 149 et g< '/ 

Jackson M L, 464 

Jackson, battle of, 211 

Jackson, siege of, 232 

Jackon Lieut, 223 

Jackson R S, 120 

Jarvis Lieut, 157 

Jenkins Col, 227 306 399 543 

544 
Jenkins' Ferry, battle of, 294 
Jenks J D, 569 572 
Jewett J E, 590 
John A, 556 
Johnson Maj, 574 
Johnson Capt, 213 
Johnson Lieut, 189 
Johnson G W, 589 
Jones J A, 596 
Jones Senator, 265 
Jones J P, 354 
Jones B S, 583 585 
Jones Capt, 120 546 
Jones E R, 589 
Jones W C, 281 
Jonesboro, battle of, 322 
Journal Mt Pleasant, 468 
Joy W L, 465 
Johnson Capt, 583 
Johnston Gen J»E, 211 212 224 

387 
Johnston Gen A S. 102 122 
Johnson S D, 216 
Jordan Capt, 189 
Jones Lieut, 117 227 379 
Junkiu J F, 468 
Jurney Sergt, 103 



INDEX. 



611 



Jordan J G, 20 


Leebert Sergt, 210 597 


McDowell Col, 138 


Jordan J, 228 


Leebert Corp, 120 


McElhany Corporal, 172 




Leffingwell D, 137 


McFarland Col 189 


Kaltenbauoh Corporal, 365 


Legan J J, 215 


McFarland J, 286 


Kansas, 21) 


Leggett Gen, 319 


McKean Gen, 173 


Kasson J A, 32 175 272 32G 459 


Leighton H C, 452 


McKee Capt, 585 


—Addenda 


Letner David, 226 


McKee Lieut, 583 


Kellogg Maj, 104 


Lewis Lieut, 157 


McKee S J, 589 


Keeler Ool, 281 404 555 556 


Lewis Sergt, 170 


McKenzie Lieut, 117 


Kelsey Capt, 134 227 


Libby Prison, 477 


McKinley 8 J, 216 380 


Kelsey Lieut, 117 


Limbocker J, 219 


McMillen Lieut, 281 


Kemery Lieut, 227 - 


Lincoln A, 27 33 176 256 259 264 


McMullin Maj, 170 305 494 


Kenderdine Lieut, 213 


331 333 374 430 473 593 


McMurtrie A H, 235 


Kendrick F A, 578 


Lindsay SB, 219 


McMurtrie Lieut, 174 


Kendrick Capt, 576 


Little Capt, 227 


McNeal Capt, 257 


Kennedy J C, 322 391 


Littler Capt, 136 


McNeely E G, 593 


Kennedy Capt, 172 


Loan bill, opponents of, 48 


McPhersoa Gen, 210 211 212 


Kenesaw, battle of, 309 


Loflaud John, 24 1 551 


224 304 314 340 


Kent Lieut, 242 


Lo?au Gen, 82 211 212 302 314 


McPherson M L, 604 


Kent Maj, 190 


340 362 


McQueen A G, 575 


Kettenring F P, 409 


Logan Lieut, 281 


McSweeney Capt, 227 336 499 


Kilpatrick Gen. 343 


Lone H W, 578 


Macon, 584 589 


Kincaid G W, 559 


Lonsdale J, 598 


Mack R H C, 581 


Kihst Sergt, 210 


Loomis J B, 594 


Mackey C H, 237 240 296 299 


Kindig O J, 299 


Loomis A M, 385 


549 


King Corporal, 168 


Lothrop C H, 569 572 


Madden Mrs. 463 


King Lieut, 172 


Loughridge Lieut, 171 


Madison Capt T, 171 


King S W, 143 


Loughridge Wm, 463 


IViagdeu W M, 226 


Kinsman J D, 171 


Lowe GleuD, 585 


Magee Lieut, 117 


Kinsman Col, 222, 527 


Lowe W W, 590 


Magoun G F, & 458 


Kirby B F, 213 


Lucas Lieut, 155 380 


Mahanna Capt, 46 


Kirkpatrick Sergt, 290 


Lucas E W, 510 


Mahin John, 463 467 


Kirkpatrick R R, 286 


Lucas J H, 143 


Mahon Capt, 171 323 


Kirkwood Gov S J, 5 28 ft se<j 


Lucas Capt, 317 


Mahon Adjt, 293 


40 74 80 88 104 175 176 178 


Lundy Capt, 576 


Mahoney D A, 263 265 


180 etseq 192 231 262 266 268 


Lusby Capt, 220 


Mahoney Democrats, 51 


269 327 505 


Lyman Joseph, 448 538 


Manning Ed, 464 


Kittle Capt, 171 


Lyman Adjt, 299 


Manning Adjt, 171 


Kittredge C W, 83 86 237 249 


Lynch Maj, 536 


March to the Sea, The, 336 


285 287 557 


Lynde Lieut, 170 


Marden C F, 578 


Knee S G, 366 404 509 


Lyon Lieut, 241 


Mardis Sergt, 290 


Knight Capt, 137 


Lyon Gen, 63 69 


Markell Mrs, 458 


Knight J P, 595 


Lyon O H, 603 


Marks' Mills, battle of, 291 


Knight Lieut, 79 


Lyons Dr, 277 


Marmaduke Gen, 583 


Knott A R, 385 


Lyons Capt, 450 


Marsh Lieut, 170 


Kostman Capt, 174 


Lyons D H, 203 


Marshall Major, 219 255 


Kuhu Capt, 220 


Lyons W W, 223 


Marshall Col, 365 


Kuhn Corporal, 172 


Lytle R M, 191 


Marmaduke Gen, 238 


Kurtz C H, 385 




Marsh Dr, 103 


Kynett A J, 463 


McAllister Fort, storming of, 


Marbin Capt, 277 380 




345 


Martin Lieut, 227 


Lacey J F, 79 237 238 298 410 


McArthur Gen, 404 


Martin J W, 216 


415 448 575 


McCallS B. 137 


Martinsburg, 43 


Ladd J A, 575 


McCalla N, 257 


Mason J W, 226 


Lake Jed, 361 535 


McOalla Maj, 171 


Mason Capt, 46 


LaHe Dr, 171 


McCanon Lieut, 594 


Mastick Lieut. 103 


Lakin Sergt, 137 


McCaulley Maj, 291 


Mastick Capt, 170 


Lakin J H. 79 


McClellan Geu. 175 324 325 


Mateer Lieut, 156 


Lakin Lieut, 174 


McClelland J C, 191 


Mathews Provost, 464 


Limb Caleb, 462 558 


McClemand Gen, 94 196 200 


Mathews G L, 458 


Lambert John, 558 


208 224 


Matthews B A, 137 


Lampley Col, 318 433 


McClure Lieut, 117 


Matthies C L, 40 46 152 250 


Landis Capt, 246 


McConnell Capt, 576 


257 442 490 


Langworthy Mrs, 458 


McConnell Mrs, 464 


Maxwell J C, 227 


Lanstrum Lieut, 143 172 


McCord Lieut, 170 


May John, 293 


Larrabee Gov. 5 458 461 478 


McCormack Capt, 134 291 


Meally Corporal, 103 


Latham J W, 585 


McCormick Sergt, 171 


Melendy Peter. 468 


Lauman Geu, 82 98 104 173 234 


McCosh T, 461 


Memphis, defense of, 370 


235 494 495 


M:Coy James, 20 


Mentor, 34 


Lawier Gen, 221 222 228 


McCoy D J, 492 


Meekins Lieut, 220 


Lawrence Adjt, 155 


McCrary Capt, 583 


Merrell N A, 202 


Lawrence Lieut, 216 


McCra7 Capt, 223 


Merrill ilapt, 451 


Leake Col. 191 241 414 518 520 


McCullough Capt, 170 


Merrill P G C, 137 


521 528 534 


McCullough Geu, 243 


Merrill Col S, 64 67 70 209 210 


Ledger Fairfield, 468 


McCurrau Lieut, 593 


223 248 445 521 522 


Ledyard G R, 405 


McDermott M >j, 574 


Merrill Thomas, 41 


Lee R E, 346 


McDill James, 202 


Merritt J H. 464 


Lee Capt, 219 


McDonald A Y, 223 


Messenger N C, 228 



612 



INDEX. 



Messenger Lieut, 379 

Messenger N E, 384 

Metcalf Lieut, 576 

Meyer Johu, 385 462 537 

Meyer H, 143 

Mickey I, 226 

Miller C H, 554 

Miller Lieut, 584 

Miller Lieut, 172 

Miller A W, 558 

Miller T H, 141 

Miller A J, 230 254 307 491 492 

Miller P, 143 

Miller E C, 200 

Miller A B, 281 

Miller T J, 583 

Miller S F, 459 

Miller Lieut, 257 

Miller Maj, 233 

Miller J S, 286 

Milliken's Bend, battle of, 243 

Miliikiu J P, 226 

Mills Col N W, 103 136 168 170 

Mills Mrs N W, 169 

Minton Capt, 233 257 

Miscellanies, 470 

Mitchell Lieut, 398 

Mitchell T, 20 466 

Mix Col, 280 

Mobile, battles for, 401 

Molineux Col, 376 

Montague Sergt, 174 

Montevallo, fight at, 584 

Montgomery, 584 

Montgomery T L, 305 

Moody Sergt, 581 

Moore C P, 578 

Moore S A, 475 

Moore Capt, 103 117 136 594 

Moore Lieut, W G-, 103 676 

Moore Sergt, 239 

Moorhead H C, 366 

Moreland Lieut, 594 

Morey J K, 289 516 

Morgan Port, 414 

Morhiser P C, 594 

Morrill H L, 575 

Morrill Q M, 241 

Morris Lieut, 171 

Morrisson J B, 170 171 

Morrisy Sergt, 103 

Morrow Lieut, 594 

Morse Sergt, 103 

Morsman W W, 384 

Morsman Capt, 379 

Moss C E, 569 

Mudgett G C, 326 

Muhs Henry, 407 

Muhs Lieut, 134 

Muir Lieut, 318 

Mullins Capt, 379 

Mullins Lieut, 228 

Mullins F, 384 

Murphy Col, 193 

Murphy J L, 568 

Myers L K, 406 

Nashville, battle of, 361 578 
Nassau Dr, 103 
Neal Capt, 318 
Neat Lieut, 170 
Needham J R, 460 464 
Needhan Lieut, 379 
Needham W H, 228 
Neff Capt, 117 
Nelson M W, 299 
Nelson R M, 603 
Newbold Col, 275 280 



Newbold Lt.-Gov, 447 
Niblack W C, 681 
Nichols S D, 390 
Nick-a-jack, battle of, 310 
Nickel W, 258 
Noble J L, 405 
Noble J W, 580 583 584 
Nolan F, 281 
Norris Maj, 287 291 
Norris Sergt, 170 
North Maj, 465 
Nunn G R', 257 
Nutt H C, 464 

O'Brien G M, 596 

O'Connor Harry, 444 554 

Ogle Lieut, 594 

Ogg A L, 137 

O'Hair M, 381 

Oleson Sergt, 290 

O'Neil Capt, 79 

Old Town Creek, fight at, 370 

Olney Corporal, 597 

Opdyke Col, 36T) 

Orr Lieut, 203 

Orman J H, 140 

Ord Gen, 151 

Orme Col, 190 

Osterhaus Gen, 209 222 

Owen Lieut, 227 

Owen Lieut, 576 

Orr Jackson, 171 

OUver H, 191 

Page Corporal, 103 

Page Lieut, 156 

Paine Capt, 190 

Paine Gen, 87 576 

Palmer Capt, 134 

Palmer A, 143 155 

Palmer J E, 381 

Palmer Mr and Mrs, 465 

Palmer Frank, 467 

Palmer D J, 203 399, 530 

Palmer A L, 171 

Pangborn Lieut, 157 

Parcher L, 120 

Parkell A B, 586 

Parker Dr, 103 

Parker Lieut, 170 

Parker's Cross Koads, battle 

of, 192 
Parks B D, 379 
Parks D M, 597 
Parmlee W S, 405 
Parrott J C, 86 100 136 170 477 

495 567 
Parvin J A, 462 
Parvin James, 20 
Patrick M T, 593 
Pattee J, 596 
Pattee John, 566 
Patterson J S. 202 
Patterson R F, 538 156 
Peach Tree Creek, battle of, 

311 
Pea Ridge, battle of, 108 et 

seq 579 
Pearson Lieut, 226 
Pease Corporal, 598 
Peebles Capt, 281 546 ."it; 
Peetz Lieut, 287 291 
Pemberton Gen, 214 
Pendleton Judge, 4(1") 
Penneyman J B, 143 
Perczel Col, 89 147 
Perkins J L, 531 
Perkins A A, 477 



Perkins Maj, 453 

Perry Maj C H, 580 

Peters J H, 223 221 587 

Pfoutz Lieut, 318 

Phelps Mrs, 69 

Phelps Frank, 41 

Phelps J E, 120 

Phillips Sergt, 170 

Pickerell Capt, 219 

Pierce A R, 583 

Pierce Maj, 588 

Pillow, his capture, 472 

Pitzer Lieut, 200 

Pleasant Hill, battle of, 278 

Pleasonton Gen. 588 

Poag Capt, 219 

Poison Springs, battle of, 289 

Pollock S M, 596 

Pomutz Adjt, 504 143 172 

Pope Gen, 146 

Porter Lieut, 172 

Porter Admiral. 201 207 276 

Porter J M, 293 

Porter J O, 14a 

Porter A, 585 

Port Gibson, battle of, 203 

Post Sydney, 363 

Potter T J, 452 

Potter Maj, 70 

Pound E H, 385 

Prairie Grove, battle of, 186 

et seq 571 
Pray G B. 449 
Prentiss B M, 237 
Price Col, 141 
Price Gen, 157 174 238 
Price Hiram, 33, 272 326 464 
Price List, 472 
Price M M, 503 
Prisons, rebel, 476 
Pritchard Lieut, 594 
Prouty C, 240 
Pugh Col, 145 
Pugh Gen, 234 
Purcell Maj, 172 
Pyle Dr, 170 

Quantrill Col, 570 
Queal Lieut, 576 
Quinby Gen, 204 501 

Rand E D, 461 

Randall W H, 258 

Rankin Col, 89 

Rankin S, 459 

Rankin W A, 475 

Ransom Gen, 276 

Rarick Lieut, 233 

Rausch Lieut, 322 

Rawlings W, 223 

Ray Capt, 515 

Raymond, battle of, 211 

Read J G, 604 

Ream Lieut, 86 

Redfield Lt-Col James, 193 

352 354 564 
Redman Capt, 453 
Red River Campaign, 274 
Reed J R, 170 404 448 593 599 

601 
Reed Acting Adjt, 365 
Reed Rev J A, 464 
Reed Lt-Col, 364 
Reeder G, 578 
Reffbv Capt, 399 
Register Dea Moines, 452*466 
Bold Hugh T, 142 14;! 172 2« 

506 



INDEX. 



613 



Reily Lieut, 576 




Scofleld Lieut, 103 


Smith M L, 254 340 


Reineger Capt, 171 




Scott Gen, 427, Addenda 


Smith S, 409 


Reinick J, 228 




Scott Col John, 77 275 279 447 


Smith Sergt, 103 


Remley Sergt, 379 




560 


Smith S G, 288 299 462 564 565 


Renick D, 604 




Scott Rep, 453 


Smith S O, 281 


Resaca, battle of, 304 




Scott Maj O H P, 581 


Smith Sooy, 577 


Resaca, defense of, 357 




Searle C P, 372 


Smith T K, 201 


Reynolds G J, 31 1 




Searle Mrs C P, 372 


Smith W R, 465 


Reynolds Lieut, 570 




Seburt Sergt, 598 


Smith W T, 464 


Rhodes Isaac, 569 




Seevers Capt, 171 


Smith W W, 385 


Rice Capt, 117 




Seiberlich Sergt, 170 


Smyth Col, 202 


Rice E W, 82 86 104 136 108 


Sells E, 261 604 


Snowden Lieut, 103 170 


305 316 320 348 442 473 493 


Sennett Capt, 299 


Soldier Civilians, 444 et seq 


Rice S A, 237 284 287 295 298 


Sessions W H, 468 


Soldiers 1 Home, 478 


300 442 539 550 551 




Seward W H, 22 


Sons of Liberty, 334 


Rich J, 464 




Sexton I, 257 


Spanish Fort, 404 


Richards Seth, 464 




Shane John, 141 164 312 316 


Spearman Capt, 226 


Richmond Capt, 190 




322 449 


Sperry A F, 549 


Rider L, 226 




Shankliu Lieut, 281 


Spoor N T, 170 601 


Ridge Lieut, 313 




Sharman C H, 240 453 


Springclale, 20 


Ried Lieut, 143 




Sharp Corporal, 593 


Springfield, battle of, 66 245 


Rieinenschneider J W, 385 


386 


Sharp Capt, 399 


Staley J A, 215 


Rigby Capt W T, 378 38C 




Shaw Col WT, 5 98 100 130 


Stanley Gen, 302 


Riley Lieut, 117 




134 172 275 278 280 282 510 


Stanton E M, 473 


Ringland G S, 603 




511 535 547 548 


Stanton T H, 604 


Rivers' Bridge, 389 




Shawl Lieut, 156 


Starck F E, 191 


Robb M A, 228 




Shedd G, 464 


Stark Lieut, 203 


Robb John, 228 




Shelbina, 78 


Starkweather P N, 598 


Robbins A B, 463 




Shellady S B, 462 559 


Starkweather Sergt, 313 


Roberts Col A, 399 542 




Shelly Corporal, 153 


Steedman Gen, 363 


Roberts Lieut J W, 242 




Shenandoah Valley, Iowa in, 


Steele Gen F, 199, 201 284 294 


Roberts Lieut W A, 223 


229 


373 


402 410 438 


Robertson Jas, 228 




Shephard T H, 596 


Steele J L, 258 


Robertson W S, 41 147 




Sheridan Gen, 110 375 383 576 


Sterling Farm, battle of, 241 


Robinson G A, 120 




Sherman Gen, 128 138 196 198 


Sterling Q M, 379 


Robinson Mrs, 458 




200 201 213 224 232 250 301 


Stevens Mr and Mrs C S, 462 


Rodakin Sergt, 580 




309 336 393 


Stewart Sergt, 170 


Roderick Capt, 190 




Sherman Hoyt, 604 


Stibbs J H, 364 365 368 508 509 


Roe Capt, 532 




Sherman's March to the Sea, 


Stibbs Capt, 134 


Rogers N J, 143 172 




Song of, 350 


Stifller J W, 257 


Roop Ben, 464 




Sherman B R, 5 141 445 


Still R A, 200 


Root Lieut, 190 




Shields Lemuel, 120, 399 


Stone E, 191 


Root Maj R, 593 594 




Shiloh, battle of, 122 et seq 


Stone G A, 202 203 208 235 


Rosecrans Gen, 149 157 


159 


Shiras O P, 458 


257 258 398 530 531 544 


176 




Shoemaker Maj, 240 299 538 


Stone W M, 5 79 136' 137 228 


Ross Gen, 204 209 




Shockey Capt, 379 


261 263, administration of, 


Roszell Capt, 546 547 




Shrader Surgeon, 379 


324 et seq, 331 524 667 


Roth rock J H, 449 554 




Shunk Col, 376 


Stone J C, 477 475 


Rowles Corporal, 117 




Shurtz E, 594 


Stonaker Capt, 246 290 


Ruckrnan Capt J L, 235 




Shurtz E, 141 


Stout Mrs, 458 


Ruckman Lieut Joseph, 


235 


Shutz Capt, 594 


Stratton F A, 603 


Ruehl J, 143 




Siberts E, 319 


Streaper Capt, 46 


Russell Ed, 467 




Sigel Gen, 63 119 


Street W B and Mrs 463 


Rynearson Lieut, 398 




Simmons Mrs, 456 


Streetor Z, 468 


Ryan David, 449 495 




Simmons Sergt, 299 


Strong Dr, 293 






Sims Wm, 370 


Strong J G, 277 381 


Safley J, 318 




Sinclair H, 228 


Stuart A A, 216 257 


Salter Mrs, 455 




Skelton Lieut, 213 


Studer Lieut, 143 


Salter Rev Wm, 5 44 270 




Skiff H, 462 


Stubbs Capt, 134 


Sample Lieut J B, 103 




Skilling H, 313 


Sturgis Gen, 582 587 


Sample Lieut, 157 




Slack Gen, 215 405 


Suiter Lieut, 170 


Sampson E S, 217 449 489 




Slaymaker Capt, 99 103 


Sullivan Gen. 195 


Sanders Editor, 467 




Sloan A J, 365 


Sumbardo C L, 369 


Sanders J I, 575 




Slocum Gen, 302 343 


Sumner, Charles, 271 


Sanders Add H, 59 143 164 172 


Smith A J, 202 275 358 362 368 


Summers J C, 381 


312 316 317 442 477 




Smith B K, 171 


Summers S W, 596 


Sanford H W, 458 




Smith Capt, 155 329 380 


Sutherland Lieut, 227 


Sanitary Commission, 


De3 


Smith Dr, 293 


Sutton P M, 478 


Moines, names of promi- 


Smith Gen C F, 94 97 


Svendsen Lieut, 202 


nent persons attending, 


456 


Smith Giles A, 201 


Swallow Capt, 220 


Saunders Major, 604 




Smith H, 190 


Swalm A W, 5 452 


Savery Mr and Mrs, 465 




Smith John E, 250 254 


Swan Col, 223 590 


Schievers H, 321 




Smith J M, 203 


Swearingin Sergt, 216 


Schinitzer Lieut, 576 




Smith John S, 257 


Swivel J, 210 223 


Schnitger Maj G, 367 575 


578 


Smith Joseph, 258 


Sydenham T, 367 578 


Schofield Gen, 186 301 340 358 


Smith Kirby, 294 




363 




Smith Lieut, 189 


Taber D J, 589 


Scobey Lieut, 174 




Smith Mil j, 201 226 258 533 


Tabor, 20 



6U 



INDEX. 



Taggart S L, 604 

Tally, killed, 474 

Taylor Hawkins, 33 

Taylor T J, 190 242 581 

Teil Sergt, 120 

Teal F, 120 399 

Teesdale John, 20 

Temp'in W D, 281 

Tenbrceck P, 596 

Terre Noir Bayou, 285 

Terry Lieut, 220 

Terry Jas, 170 

Terry Gen, 418 

Teter Corporal, 218 

Thanksgiving Day 1861, 88 

et seq 
Thanksgiving Day 1862, 175 

etseq 
Thanksgiving Day 1863, 259 

et seq 
Thanksgiving Day, 1864, 324 

et seq 
Thayer Gen, 199 201 284 
Thomas Gen, 301 340 361 364 
Thompson Col, 574 
Thompson Maj, 191 520 
Thompson Maj, 462 
Thompson S D, 79 449 485 
Thompson W D, 219 
Thompson W G, 326 
Throckmorton Lieut, 172 
Tichenor Lieut E, 134 171 
Tichenor Geo C, 562 
Tilton, capture of, 356 
Tinkham J L, 372 
Tisdale Lieui, 103 117 170 
Todd John, 20 
Torrence W M G, 202 258 542 

575 
Totten P P, 299 
Tourtelotte Col, 355 
Tower D W, 216 
Towner Capt, 117 
Townsley Capt, 134 
Trimble Col, 115 579 
Trowbridge, 25 
Truesdale Private, 367 
Trumbull M M, 79 137 173 

595 
Trussel A S, 216 
Tryne D, 228 
Tullis J, 137, 485 
Tupelo, battle of, 368 
Turnbull Lieut, 379 
Turner Asa, 44 464 
Tuttle Adjt, 103 
Tuttle Gen J M, 5 93 99 104 

107 126 213 262 442 508 
Twombly V P, 1C3 170 450 
Tyrrell Lieut, 227 

Udell Dr, 104 
Upton Gen, 584 589 

Vallandigham W W, 264 
Van Anda Maj, 209 223 229 
Van Dorn Gen, 193 198 
Van Eaton Marshal, murder 

of, 474 
Van Beck Maj, 240 
Vandever Col, 110 498 
Vandever Mrs, 458 



Van Dorn Gen, 160 
Van Valkenberg J, 326 
Van Minden Capt, 590 
Van Meter Capt, 246 
Van Vredenberg Lieut, 590 
Van Hoseu Maj, 172 
Vaughn W, 462 
Veatch Lieut, 584 588 
Vineyard H, 407 409 
Vicksburg, attempts on, 196 
Vicksburg, Iowa at, 206 
Vicksburg, siege of, 224 
Van Duzee Capt, 134 
Voorhees Capt, 223 

Walcutt Col, 348 

Walden Capt, 213 216 

Walden M M, 138 447 491 593 

Waldron G W, 590 

Walker W A, 172 312 318 

Wall John, 584 588 

Wallace Lew, 94 

Wallace W H L, 124 

Wallen Sergt, 84 

Walling Lieut, 170 

Wane John, 137 

War Governor, 27 et seq 

Ward W R, 202 

Ward J W, 288 

Warner Capt, 134 

Warner W W, 225 

Warren Fitz Henry, 248 261 

262 439 et. seq 569 
Warren Capt, 79 594 
Washburn Capt, 117 227 
Washburue Mrs, 463 
Watson Capt, 223 
Watson Lieut, 367 
Watson J M, 210 
Watson J H, 141 
Watson J W, 592 
Watt Corporal, 581 
Watts J H, 583 
Wayne John, 595 
Weare Banker, 462 
Weaver J B, 103 170 447 475 
Weaver H, 277 
Webb A E, 171 
Webster Col, 135 
Weed C, 462 
Werser E J, 137 174 
Wells Corporal, 172 
Wells Lieut, 134 
Wentz Capt, 46 82 86 
Westerfelt Rev, 270 
West Liberty, 20 
Westphal W, 458 
Wever C K, 213 216 250 257 357 

512 
Wheeler Gen, 388 
Whipple L W, 240 
White E G, 379 
White J, 463 
White Lieut, 313 
White L J, 597 
White R E, 140 
Whitenack Capt, 172 318 
Whitredge W E, 287 
Whitten John, 256 
Wickersham Col, 571 
Wiiburn Lieut, 227 
Wilkins Capt, 136 



Wilkins Lieut, 172 

Wiles J Q, 384 

Willet Capt, 79 

Williamson Gen, 120 199 200 

257 258 308 319 419 487 
Williams Capt, 139 
Williams Col, 78 136 
Williams Col, 289 
Williams E S, 464 
Williams J L, 463 
Williams J W, 598 
Williams Lieut, 155 
Williams Lieut R S, 380 
Williams Lietit, 398 
Wilson Jas F, 271 272 273 326 
Wiison B W, 380 385 386 537 

538 
Wilson Lieut, 141 172 
Wilson J B, 381 
Wilson D S, 596 
Wilson Capt, 223 
Wilson Capt, 585 
Wilson Gen, 584 
Wilson Lieut D B, 170 
Wilson's Creek, battle of, 63 
Wiltse H A, 457 
Winn Private, 367 
Winslow H, 462 
Winslow Gen E F, 442 583 

585 586 587 588 589 
Winterbotham Lieut, 604 
Wise Capt, 46 
Wise S A, 512 
Wise Sergt, 170 
Witherwax Dr, 277 
Wittenmeyer Anna. 455 
Wivinas Private, 365 
Wood J S, 596 
Wood N W, 226 
Wood Col, 580 
Woodbury G M, 463 
Woodrow Lieut, 213. 216 
Woodruff J M, murder of, 474 
Woods C R, 348 
Woods W B, 533 
Woods W W, 589 590 
Woods Col, 100 133 134 368 
Woolsey Adjt, 213 216 257 
Worthington Col, 90 147 488 
Wragg J L, 308 
Wright Capt, 190 
Wright Ed, 216 277 326 384 450 

530 
Wright J M, 293 
Wright G G, 465 
Wright H H. 452 
Wright J F, 281 
Wright M C, 237 601 
Wright N P, 354 
Wylie Lieut, 318 

Yazoo Pass Expedition, 203 

Yerger Capt, 239 

Young J M, 592 

Young J B, 604 

Young J T, 451 

Young C M, 583 

Young Aunt BecBy, 456 

Young J L, 595 

Yount Isaac N, 329 530 

Zettler M, 143 



INDEX. 



615 



HISTORIES OF IOWA REGIMENTS AND BATTERIES. 



First Infantry, 481 
Second Infantry, 482 
Third Infantry, 484 
Fourth Infantry, 486 
Fifth Infantry, 488 
Sixth Infantry, 490 
Seventh Infantry, 493 
Eighth Infantry, 495 
Ninth Infantry, 498 
Tenth Infantry, 500 
Eleventh Infantry, 503 
Twelfth Infantry, 507 
Thirteenth Infantry, 503 
Fourteenth Infantry, 510 
Fifteenth Infantry, 503 
Sixteenth Infantry, 503 
Sevanteenth Infantry. 512 
Eighteenth Infantry, 514 
Nineteenth Infantry, 517 
Twentieth Infantry, 519 
Twenty-first Infantry. 521 



Twenty-second Infantry, 523 
Twenty-third Infantry, 526 
Twenty-fourth Infantry, 528 
Twenty-fifth Infantry, 530 
Twenty-sixth Infantry, 532 
Twenty-seventh Infantry, 

534 
Twenty-eighth Infantry, 536 
Twenty-ninth Infantry, 538 
Thirtieth Infantry, 540 
Thirty-first Infantry, 543 
Thirty-second Infantry, 546 
Thirty-third Infantry, 549 
Thirty-fourth Infantry, 552 
Thirty-fifth Infantry, 554 
Thirty-sixth Infantry, 557 
Thirty-seventh Infantry, 558 
Thirty-eighth Infantry, 560 
Thirty-ninth Infantry, 562 
Fortieth Infantry, 564 
Forty-first Infantry, 566 



The Union Brigade, 567 
The One Hundred Days Men 

567 
Colored Regiment, 568 

First Cavalry, 569 
Second Cavalry 575 
Third Cavalry, 578 
Fourth Cavalry, 585 
Fifth Cavalry, 590 
Sixth Cavalry, 595 
Seventh Cavalry, 595 
Eighth Cavalry, 593 
Ninth Cavalry, 595 

First Battery, 596 
Second Battery, 598 
Third Battery, 601 
Fourth Battery, 603 
Marine Brigade, etc., 603 



t|v/t|5f 




h 'I! 



